UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 20172021

OR

Commission File Number 001-38017

SNAP INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(310) 399-3339

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. YES Yes ☒ No ☐ NO ☒

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. YES Yes ☐ NO  No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. YES Yes ☒ NO  No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Website, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit and post such files). YES Yes ☒ NO  No ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or emerging growth company. See the definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company”company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

If an emerging growth company, indicate by checkmark if the registrantRegistrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). YES Yes ☐ NO  No ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, based on the closing price of the shares of Class A common stock on Thethe New York Stock Exchange on June 30, 2017,2021, the last business day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was $11,487,095,467.approximately $81.7 billion.

As of January 31, 2018,February 1, 2022, the registrantRegistrant had 887,610,9641,369,920,406 shares of Class A common stock, 122,808,70822,749,440 shares of Class B common stock, and 216,615,870231,626,943 shares of Class C common stock outstanding.

Auditor Firm Id: 42Auditor Name: Ernst & Young LLPAuditor Location: Los Angeles, CA, United States

TABLE OF CONTENTS

iii

NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKINGFORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The following discussionThis Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K,report, including statements regarding guidance, our future results of operations or financial condition, business strategy and plans, user growth and engagement, product initiatives, and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “going to,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,” or “would” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions.

We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including risks described in “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K regarding, among other things:

We caution you that the foregoing list may not containinclude all of the forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.report.

You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends, including our financial outlook and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, that we believe may continue to affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. The outcome of the events described in theseThese forward-looking statements isare subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors described inunder “Risk Factor Summary” below, “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A, and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 10-K, including among other things:

Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The results, events, and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur, and actual results, events, or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. And while we believe that information provides a reasonable basis for these statements, that information may be limited or incomplete. Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-Kreport to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-Kreport or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events,

except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures, restructurings, legal settlements, or investments.

Investors and others should note that we may announce material business and financial information to our investors using our investor relations website (investor.snap.com)websites (including investor.snap.com), filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, filings, webcasts, press releases, and conference calls. We use these mediums, including Snapchat and our website, to communicate with our members and the public about our company, our products, and other issues. It is possible that the information that we make available may be deemed to be material information. We therefore encourage investors and others interested in our company to review the information that we make available on our website.websites.

Risk Factor Summary

Our business is subject to significant risks and uncertainties that make an investment in us speculative and risky. Below we summarize what we believe are the principal risk factors but these risks are not the only ones we face, and you should carefully review and consider the full discussion of our risk factors in the section titled “Risk Factors”, together with the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If any of the following risks actually occurs (or if any of those listed elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K occurs), our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, revenue, and future prospects could be seriously harmed. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business.

1.Our Strategy and Advertising Business

We operate in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment so we must continually innovate our products and evolve our business model for us to succeed.

We emphasize rapid innovation and prioritize long-term user engagement over short-term financial conditions or results if we believe that it will benefit the aggregate user experience and improve our financial performance over the long term. We currently have a history of operating losses but, as a result of our long-term focus, we may prioritize investments and expenses we believe are necessary for our long-term growth over achieving short-term profitability. Investments in our future, including through new products or acquisitions, are inherently risky and may not pay off, which would adversely affect our ability to settle the principal and interest payments on our outstanding convertible senior notes or other indebtedness when due, and further delay or hinder our ability to attain and sustain profitability. This in turn would hinder our ability to secure additional financing to meet our current and future financial needs on favorable terms, or at all.

We generate substantially all of our revenue from advertising. Our advertising business is most effective when our advertisers succeed. Driving their success requires continual investment in our advertising products and may be hindered by competitive challenges and various legal, regulatory, and operating system changes that make it more difficult for us to achieve and demonstrate a meaningful return for our advertisers. For example, on-going changes to privacy laws and mobile operating systems have made it more difficult for us to measure the effectiveness of advertisements on our services, and alternative methods will take time to develop and become more widely adopted by our advertisers, and may not be as effective as prior methods. We believe that this impact on our targeting, measurement, and optimization capabilities has negatively affected our operating results. In addition, our advertising business is seasonal and volatile, which could result in fluctuations in our quarterly revenues and operating results, including the expectations of our business prospects.

Our business and operations have been, and could in the future be, adversely affected by events beyond our control, such as health epidemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic (including any variants) and macroeconomic factors like labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and inflation impacting the markets and communities in which we and our partners, advertisers, and users operate.

2.Our Community and Competition

We need to continually innovate and create new products, and enhance our existing products, to attract, retain, and grow our global community. Products that we create may fail to attract or retain users, or to generate meaningful revenue, if at all. If our community does not see the value in our products or brand, or if competitors offer better alternatives, our community could easily switch to other services. While we have experienced rapid growth in our community over the last few years, we have also experienced declines and there can be no assurance that won’t happen again. We have and expect to continue to expand organically and through acquisitions, including in international markets, which we may not be able to effectively manage or scale.

Many of our competitors have significantly more resources and larger market shares than we do, each of which gives them advantages over us that can make it more difficult for us to succeed.

3.Our Partners

We primarily rely on Google, Apple, and Amazon to operate our service and provide the mobile operating systems for our applications. If these partners do not provide their services as we expect, terminate their services, or change the terms of our agreements or the functionality of their operating systems in ways that are adverse to us, our service may be interrupted and our product experience could be degraded, and these may harm our reputation, increase our costs, or make it harder for us to

attain or sustain profitability. Many other parts of our business depend on partners, including content partners and advertising partners, so our success depends on our ability to attract and retain these partners.

4.Our Technology and Regulation

Our business is complex and success depends on our ability to rapidly innovate, the interoperability of our service on many different smartphones and operating systems, and our ability to handle sensitive user data with the care our users expect. Because our systems and our products are constantly changing, we are susceptible to data breaches, bugs, and other errors in how our products work and are measured. We may also fail to maintain effective processes that report our metrics or financial results. Given the complexity of the systems involved and the rapidly changing nature of mobile devices and systems, we expect to encounter issues, particularly if we continue to expand in parts of the world where mobile data systems and connections are less stable.

We are also subject to complex and evolving federal, state, local, and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, content, taxes, and other matters, which are subject to change and have uncertain interpretations. Any actual or perceived failure to comply with such legal and regulatory obligations, including in connection with our consent decree with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, or any economic or political instability, may adversely impact our business.

We also must actively protect our intellectual property. From time to time, we are subject to various legal proceedings, claims, inquiries, and investigations, including class actions and matters involving intellectual property, that may be costly or distract management. We also rely on a variety of statutory and common-law frameworks for the content we provide our users, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Communications Decency Act, and the fair-use doctrine, each of which has been subject to adverse judicial, political, and regulatory scrutiny in recent times.

5.Our Team and Capital Structure

We need to attract and retain a high caliber team, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer, to maintain our competitive position. We may incur significant costs and expenses in maintaining and growing our team, and may lose valuable members of our team as we compete globally, including with many of our competitors, for key talent. A substantial portion of our employment costs is paid in our common stock, the price of which has been volatile, and our ability to attract and retain talent may be adversely affected if our shares decline in value.

Our two co-founders control over 99% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock, which means they control substantially all outcomes submitted to stockholders. Class A common stockholders have no voting rights, unless required by Delaware law. This concentrated control may result in our co-founders voting their shares in their best interest, which might not always be in the interest of our stockholders generally.

NOTE REGARDING USER METRICS AND OTHER DATA

We define a Daily Active User, or DAU, as a registered Snapchat user who opens the Snapchat application at least once during a defined 24-hour period. We measurecalculate average Daily Active UsersDAUs for a particular quarter by calculatingadding the average Daily Active Users fornumber of DAUs on each day of that quarter and dividing that sum by the number of days in that quarter. We also breakDAUs are broken out Daily Active Users by geography because certain markets have a greater revenue opportunity and lower bandwidth costs.different characteristics. We define average revenue per user, or ARPU, as quarterly revenue divided by the average Daily Active Users.DAUs. For purposes of calculating ARPU, revenue by user geography is apportioned to each region based on our determination of the geographic location in which advertising impressions are delivered, as this approximates revenue based on user activity. This allocation differs from our components of revenue by geography disclosure in the notes to our consolidated financial statements, where revenue is based on the billing address of the advertising customer. For information concerning these metrics as measured by us, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Unless otherwise stated, statistical information regarding our users and their activities is determined by calculating the daily average of the selected activity for the most recently completed quarter included in this report.

While these metrics are determined based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our user base for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our products are used across large populations globally. For example, there may be individuals who have unauthorized or multiple Snapchat accounts, even though we forbid that in our Terms of Service and implement measures to detect and suppress that behavior. We have not determined the number of such multiple accounts. Our user metrics are also affected by technology on certain mobile devices that automatically runs in the background of our Snapchat application when another phone function is used, and this activity can cause our system to miscount the user metrics associated with such account.

Changes in our products, infrastructure, mobile operating systems, or metric tracking system, or the introduction of new products, may impact our ability to accurately determine Daily Active Usersactive users or other metrics and we may not determine such inaccuracies promptly. We also believe that we don’t capture all data regarding alleach of our Daily Active Users. For example, technicalactive users. Technical issues may result in data not record databeing recorded from every user’s application. WhileFor example, because some Snapchat features can be used without internet connectivity, we believe this underreporting is generally immaterial,may not count a DAU because we are unable to precisely determinedon’t receive timely notice that a user has opened the levelSnapchat application. This undercounting may increase as we grow in Rest of underreporting and for some periods the underreportingWorld markets where users may be material. We continually seek to address these technical issues and improve our accuracy, but given the complexity of the systems involved and the rapidly changing nature of mobile devices and systems, we expect underreporting to continue.have poor connectivity. We do not adjust our reported metrics to reflect this underreporting. We believe that we have adequate controls to collect user metrics, however, there is no uniform industry standard. We continually seek to identify these technical issues and improve both our accuracy and precision, including ensuring that our investors and others can understand the factors impacting our business, but these and new issues may continue in the future, including if there continues to be no uniform industry standard.

Some of our demographic data may be incomplete or inaccurate. For example, because users self-report their dates of birth, our age-demographic data may differ from our users’ actual ages. And because users who signed up for Snapchat before June 2013 were not asked to supply their date of birth, we may exclude those users andfrom our age demographics or estimate their ages based on a sample of the self-reported ages that we do have. If our Daily Active Usersactive users provide us with incorrect or incomplete information regarding their age or other attributes, then our estimates may prove inaccurate and fail to meet investor expectations.

In the past we have relied on third-party analytics providers to calculate our metrics, but today we rely primarily on our analytics platform that we developed and operate. For example, before June 2015, we used a third party that counted a Daily Active User when the application was opened or a notification was received via the application on any device. We now use an analytics platform that we developed and operate and we count a Daily Active UserDAU only when a user opens the application and only once per user per day. We believe this methodology more accurately measures our user engagement. We have multiple pipelines of user data that we use to determine whether a user has opened the application during a particular day, and thus isbecoming a Daily Active User.DAU. This provides redundancy in the event one pipeline of data were to become unavailable for technical reasons, and also gives us redundant data to help measure how users interact with our application.

Additionally, to align our pre-June 2015 Daily Active Users with this new methodology, we reduced our pre-June 2015 Daily Active Users by 4.8%, the amount by which we estimated the data generated by the third party was overstated. As a result, our metrics may not be comparable to prior periods.

If we fail to maintain an effective analytics platform, our metrics calculations may be inaccurate. We regularly review, have adjusted in the past, and are likely in the future to adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy. As a result of such adjustments, our Daily Active UsersDAUs or other metrics may not be comparable to those in prior periods. Our measures of Daily Active UsersDAUs may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology or data used.

PARTPART I

Item 1. BusinessBusiness.

Overview

Snap Inc. is a camera company. We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way that people live and communicate. Our products empowerWe contribute to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.

Our flagship product, Snapchat, is a camera application that helps people communicate visually with friends and family through short videos and images called Snaps. By opening directly to the camera, we empower users to express themselves instantly. Snaps are deleted by default, so there is a lot less pressure to look pretty or perfect when creating and sending images on Snapchat. By reducing the friction typically associated with creating and sharing content, Snapchat has already become one of the most-usedmost used cameras in the world. On average, 187 million people use Snapchat daily and create over 3.5 billion Snaps every day. According to InfoTrends, this is more than the total number of photographs taken on average across all phones, tablets, and digital cameras combined (excluding Snapchat) each day in 2017.

In the way that the flashing cursor became the starting point for most products on desktop computers, we believe that the camera screen will be the starting point for most products on smartphones. This is because images created by smartphone cameras contain more context and richer information than other forms of input like text entered on a keyboard. Given the magnitude of this opportunity, we invest heavily and take big risks in an attempt to create innovative and differentiated camera products that are better able to reflect and improve our life experiences.

Our ProductsSnapchat

Snapchat is our core mobile device application and contains five distinct tabs, complemented by additional tools that function outside of the application. With a breadth of visual communication and content experiences available within the application, Snapchatters can interact with all five, or a subset of those five tabs.

Camera: The Camera is the starting point for creation in Snapchat. Snapchat opens directly intoto the Camera, making it easy to create a Snap and send it to friends. Our augmented reality, or AR, capabilities within our Camera allow for creativity and self-expression. We offer a wide varietymillions of creative tools,Lenses, created by both us and our community, toalong with creative tools and licensed music and audio clips, which make it easy for people to personalize and add context tocontextualize their Snaps. OverWe also offer voice and scanning technology within our Camera. While Snaps are deleted by default, users can save their creativity through a searchable collection of Memories stored on both their Snapchat account and their mobile device. A user can also create Snaps on our wearable devices, Spectacles. Spectacles connect seamlessly with Snapchat and capture photos and video from a human perspective. Our latest version of Spectacles, designed for creators, overlays AR Lenses directly onto the world.

Communication: Communication allows users to send Snaps to friends collectively or individually, through our ephemeral, efficient messaging architecture. Within Communication, users can send messages through text, Snaps, and voice or video calling. They can also communicate with our proprietary personalized avatar tool, Bitmoji, and its associated contextual stickers and images, which integrate seamlessly into both mobile devices and desktop browsers. Further, users can communicate by playing one third of our Daily Active Users playGames together, many of which allow a user’s avatar to be their Bitmoji, and through Minis, which bring bite-sized utility experiences to our community inside Snapchat.

Snap Map: Snap Map is a live and highly personalized map that allows Snapchatters to connect with our augmented reality Lenses every dayfriends and explore what is going on average, and anyone can createin their own Lens using our Lens Studio. Additionally, we also offer contextually relevant content and creative tools based on things like time, location, and objects.

Friends Page: The first version of our application was a chat service that madelocal area. Snap Map makes it easy to send Snaps back and forth with friends—hence the name “Snapchat.” Interacting with friends on Snapchat now includes creating and watching Stories, chatting with Groups, making voice and video calls, and communicating through a wide range of contextual stickers and Bitmojis. The content and ordering of the Friends page reflects the user’s relationships with their friends and family. This close friend network drives high frequency engagement and results in our community opening our application an average of 25 times per day.

Discover: With so many Snaps created every day around the world, Discover helps surface the most interesting Stories from publishers, creators, and the community, based on a user’s subscriptions and interests. With so much content to explore, our users spend an average of more than 30 minutes every day in our application.

Snap Map: Pinching on the camera screen brings you to a live map of your location, showinglocate nearby friends popular stories, andwho choose to share their location, view a heatmap of recent Snaps posted to Our Story. It’sStory by location, and locate local businesses. Places, rich profiles of local businesses that include information such as store hours and reviews, overlay specialized experiences from select partners on top of Snap Map, and allow Snapchatters to take direct actions from Snap Map, such as sharing a great wayfavorite store, ordering takeout, or making a reservation.

Stories: Stories feature content from a Snapchatter’s friends, our community, and our content partners. Friends Stories allow our community to see what your friends are doingexpress themselves in narrative form through photos and explore what is goingvideos, shown in chronological order, to their friends. The Discover section of this tab displays curated content based on around the world.

Memories: Users can choose to save the Snaps they create in a searchable personal collection called Memories. Memories also lets users create SnapsSnapchatter’s subscriptions and Storiesinterests, and features news and entertainment from their saved Snapsboth our creator community and publisher partners, as well as original content in Snap Originals. We also offer Public Profiles, as a way for our creator community and our advertising partners to memorialize and scale their camera roll.content and AR Lenses on our platform.

Spotlight: Spotlight is a way to broadly share user-generated content with the entire Snapchat community. Here we surface the most entertaining Snaps from our community all in one place, which becomes tailored to each Snapchatter over time based on their preferences and favorites. The Trending page allows Snapchatters to discover and engage with popular topics and genres.

Spectacles: OneOur Partner Ecosystem

Many elements and features of Snapchat are enhanced by our expansive partner ecosystem that includes developers, creators, publishers, and advertisers, among others. We help them create and bring content and experiences into Snapchat, leverage Snapchat capabilities in their own applications and websites, and use advertising to promote these and other experiences to our large, engaged, and differentiated user base.

Developers are able to integrate with Snapchat in many ways, including through Games, Minis, and Snap Kit. Snap Kit invites developers to easily build with Snapchat, bringing the best waysof Snapchat’s technology to grow their businesses and create Memories is by using Spectacles,engaging experiences. Through Camera Kit, our sunglasses that make Snaps. Spectacles connect seamlesslypartners can embed Snap’s AR platform directly into their application, extending our reach and expanding our opportunity to learn through new AR use cases. Partners can access a turnkey suite of tools and services, from Lenses AR experiences creation to Lens carousel management and analytics, to enable AR technology for their community. Snap Kit products include Camera Kit, Creative Kit, Login Kit, Bitmoji Kit, Story Kit, Ad Kit, and Sticker Kit.

AR creators can use Lens Studio, our powerful desktop application designed for creators and developers, to build augmented reality experiences for Snapchatters. Spotlight creators can utilize our content creation tools to reach millions of Snapchatters and build their businesses through various monetization opportunities. Our Creator Marketplace connects both AR and Spotlight creators directly with Snapchatour advertising partners.

Publisher partners can expand their audiences and capture video from a human perspective.monetize content through our Discover platform. In addition, we work with various telecommunications providers and original equipment manufacturers, particularly as we build our presence in new markets.

Our BusinessAdvertising Products

We generate revenue primarily through advertising.

Advertising Products: connect both brand and direct response advertisers to Snapchatters globally. Our ad products are built on the same foundation that makes our consumer products successful. This means that we can take the things we learn while creating our consumer products and apply them to building innovative and engaging advertising products familiar to our community.

AR Ads: Advertising through Snap’s AR tools unlocks the ability to reach a unique audience in a highly differentiated way. Ads can be served as Sponsored Lenses or Sponsored Filters. Lenses are designed through our camera to take advantage of the reach and scale of our augmented reality platform to create visually engaging 3D experiences. Sponsored Geofilters help users createexperiences, including the ability to sample and send contextual Snaps with their friends, like showingtry on products such as beauty, apparel, accessories, and footwear. Filters are entertaining, artistic overlays that they are atappear after you take a particular store or restaurant. Snap. These Lenses and Filters can be memorialized on Snapchat, through Public Profiles that aggregate content, filters, and lenses in a single, easy to find place.

Snap Ads and Promoted Stories: We let advertisers tell their stories the same way our users do, using full screen videos with sound. AttachmentsThese also allow advertisers to attachintegrate additional experiences and actions directly within these ad units,advertisements, including watching a long-form video, visiting a website, or installing an app. Snap Ads include the following: 

Campaign Management and Delivery:Delivery: We are always workingaim to continually improve the way adsthese ad formats are boughtpurchased and delivered. We are investinghave invested heavily into build our programmatic and self-service tools,self-serve advertising platform, which provide forprovides automated, sophisticated, and scalable ad buying and campaign management. This helps advertisers increase their return on investment by taking advantage of more refined targeting capabilities,

We offer the ability to test and learn with different creativesbid for advertisements that are designated to drive Snapchatters to: visit a website, make a purchase, visit a local business, call or campaign attributes in real time, and the pricing dynamics of our auction.text a business, watch a story or video, download an app, or return to an app, among others. Additionally, our delivery framework continues to optimize relevance of ads across the entire platform by determining the best ad to show to any given user based on their real-time and historical attributes and activity. This decreases the number of wasted impressions while improving the effectiveness of the ads that are shown to our community. This helps advertisers increase their return on investment by providing more refined targeting, the ability to test and learn with different creatives or campaign attributes in real time, and the dynamics of our self-serve pricing.

Measuring Advertising Effectiveness:Effectiveness: We offer a broad range offirst-party and third-party and first-party solutions to provide a vast array of analytics on campaign attributes like reach, frequency, demographics, and viewability; changes in perceptions like brand favorability or purchase intent; and lifts in actual behavior like purchases, foot traffic, app installs, and online purchases. We are constantly expanding our capabilities in this area to provide more transparency to advertisers. For example, through our acquisition of Placed, Inc., a location-based measurement services company, we offer omni-channel measurement of store visitation, so that advertisers can measure the performance of their entire budget across all platforms and campaigns as it relates to the more than 90% of retail transactions that still happen offline in the physical world.

Technology 

Our Strategyresearch and development efforts focus on product development, advertising technology, and large-scale infrastructure. 

Our strategy isProduct Development: We work relentlessly and invest heavily to invest in product innovationcreate and take risksimprove products for our community and our partners. We develop a wide range of products related to improvevisual communication and storytelling that are powered by a variety of new technologies. 

Advertising Technology: We constantly develop and expand our camera platform. We do this inadvertising products and technology. In an effort to drive user engagement,provide a strong and scalable return on investment to our advertisers, our advertising technology roadmap centers around improving our delivery framework, measurement capabilities, and self-serve tools. 

Large-scale Infrastructure: We spend considerable resources and investment on the underlying architecture that powers our products, such as optimizing the delivery of billions of videos to hundreds of millions of people around the world every day. We currently partner with third party providers to support the infrastructure for our growing needs. These partnerships have allowed us to scale quickly without upfront physical infrastructure costs, allowing us to focus our efforts on product innovation.

Employees and Culture 

We seek to be a force for good through our products, our work to strengthen our communities, our efforts to make a positive impact on the planet, and our inclusive workplace. 

Supporting Our Team: Our values at Snap are being kind, smart, and creative, and we put those values into action through how we support our team and how our team supports one another. Council, which is a practice of active listening that promotes open-mindedness and cultivates empathy and compassion among participants, helps us build and sustain a community steeped in integrity, connection, collaboration, creativity, and kindness. Our talent development programs seek to unlock potential by helping team members advance, learn, and grow in a fair and equitable way at Snap. We focus on the health and well-being of our employees through programs and benefits that support their physical, emotional, and financial fitness. To attract and retain the best talent, we can then monetize through advertising. We useaim to offer challenging work in an environment that enables our employees to have a direct meaningful contribution to new and exciting projects. Underlying these values is our commitment to ethical conduct where we work to instill in our team that acting with integrity means being your whole self, being honest, and doing the revenueright thing. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Snap has long supported a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, program, and we generatehave made progress on a number of fronts, including diversifying our board of directors and executive leadership, introducing new accountability around DEI outcomes, rolling out an allyship program to fundinspire a more inclusive culture, and enhancing our recruiting process to continue driving diverse hiring. To aid in our mission, we publish a Diversity Annual Report that discusses our goals with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. This report outlines our beliefs around the idea that an inclusive workplace and inclusive products are central to achieving that purpose. This report is excerpted in our broader CitizenSnap Report that details the work we’re doing to support our communities, our planet, and our team, and is available on our website at www.snap.com. 

Human Capital: As part of our human capital resource objectives, we seek to recruit, retain, and incentivize our highly talented existing and future product innovation to grow our business.

employees. We believe that creating an inclusive environment where team members can grow, develop, and be their true selves is critical to attracting and retaining talent. Our compensation philosophies also align to that belief. 

Our compensation philosophy is based around building a culture of ownership and high performance by putting both impact and our values at the best waycenter of our performance feedback process and pay outcomes. We utilize equity as part of our compensation practices to competedrive a long-term orientation and have committed to paying a minimum living wage for all employees globally. 

As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately 5,661 full-time employees, of whom approximately 54% are in a worldengineering roles involved in the design, development, support, and manufacture of widely distributed mobile applications is innovatingnew and existing products and processes.

Climate Change: We are deepening our commitment to createhelp combat climate change. In 2021, we adopted science-based emissions reduction targets approved by the most engaging products. New mobile software is availableScience Based Targets Initiative. We became historically carbon neutral in 2021 by purchasing offsets to everyone immediately, and usually for free. While notbalance emissions attributable to Snap from our founding in 2011 through December 31, 2020. We also purchased renewable energy certificates in 2021 sufficient to cover all of the electricity consumed in our investments will pay off inU.S. operations for the long run, we are willing to take risks in an attempt to create the best and most differentiated products on the market.year ended December 31, 2020.

Due to the nature of our products and business, our ability to succeed in any given country is largely dependent on its mobile infrastructure and its advertising market. These factors influence our product performance, hosting costs, and monetization opportunity in each market.

Visual communication and augmented reality requires intensive processing and generates high bandwidth consumption by our users. As a result, our existing users tend to come from developed countries with high-end mobile devices and high-speed cellular internet. These markets also tend to have cheaper bandwidth costs, meaning that it is less expensive to serve our community in these countries. As we continue to grow in more markets around the world, we are investing heavily in making our service and technology more performant on lower end devices and working with carriers and other infrastructure partners to provide our service at a lower cost to our community.

Substantially all of our revenue comes from advertising, so our ability to generate revenue in a particular country depends on the size of its advertising market. Global advertising spend—especially mobile advertising spend—is extremely concentrated among top markets, and we see a high correlation between markets with significant and developed advertising markets and those that have a deep penetration of high-end mobile devices and high-speed cellular internet access. As such, we benefit greatly from the fact that many of our users are in markets where we have the highest capital efficiency and monetization potential, allowing us to generate revenue and cash flow that we can then invest into future product innovation.

Our Commitment to Privacy

Our approach to privacy is simple: Be upfront, offer choices, and never forget that our community comes first.

We built Snapchat as an antidote to the context-less communication that has plagued “social media.” Not so long ago, a conversation among friends would be just that: a private communication in which you knew exactly who you were talking to, what you were talking about, and whether what you were saying was being memorialized for eternity. Somewhere along the way, social media—by prioritizing virality and permanence—sapped conversations of this valuable context and choice. When we began to communicate online, we lost some of what made communication great: spontaneity, emotion, honesty—the full range of human expression that makes us human in the first place.

We don’t think digital communication has to be this way. That’s why choice matters. We build products and services that emphasize the context of a conversation—who, when, what, and where something is being said. If you don’t have the autonomy to shape the context of a conversation, the conversation will simply be shaped by the permanent feeds that homogenize online conversations.

When you read our Privacy Policy, we hope that you’ll notice how much we care about the integrity of personal communication. For starters, we’ve written our Privacy Policy in plain language because we think it’s important that everyone understandunderstands exactly how we handle their information. Otherwise, it’s hard to make informed choices about how you communicate. We’ve also created a robust Privacy Center where we show that context and choice are more than talking points. There, we point out the many ways that users can control who sees their Snaps and Stories, weand explain how long content will remain on our servers, how users can manage the information that we do have about them, and much more. You’llThis is where you’ll also find there our Transparency Report. We’re proud thatReport in which we published our first Transparency Report just a few yearsprovide insight into these efforts and visibility into the company’s existence, long before most companies take that important step.nature and volume of content reported on our platform. 

We also understand that privacy policies—no matter how ambitious—are only as good as the people and practices behind those policies. When someone trusts us to transmit or store their information, we know we have a responsibility to protect that information and we work hard to keep it secure. New features go through an intense privacy-review process—we debate pros and cons, and we work hard to build products we’re proud of and that we’ll want to use. We use Snapchat constantly, both at work and in our personal lives, and we handle user information with the same care that we want for our family, our friends, and ourselves.

Competition

We compete with other companies in every aspect of our business, particularly with companies that focus on mobile engagement and advertising. Many of these companies, such as Alphabet (including Google and YouTube), Apple, ByteDance (including TikTok), Meta (including Facebook, (including Instagram, and WhatsApp), Google (including YouTube),Pinterest, and Twitter, may have significantly greater financial and human resources and, in some cases, larger user bases. Given the breadth of our product offerings, we also compete with

companies that develop products or otherwise operate in the mobile, camera, communication, media,content, and advertising industries.industries that offer, or will offer, products and services that may compete with Snapchat features or offerings. Our competitors span from internet technology companies and digital platforms, to traditional companies in print, radio, and television sectors to underlying technologies like default smartphone cameras and messaging. Additionally, our competition for engagement varies by region. For instance, we face competition from companies like Kakao, LINE, Naver (including Snow), and Tencent in Asia.

We compete to attract and retain our users’ attention, both in terms of reach and engagement. Since our products and those of our competitors are typically free, we compete based on our brand and the quality and nature of our product offerings rather than on price. As such, we invest heavily in constantly improving and expanding our product lines.

We also compete with other companies to attract and retain partners and advertisers, which depends primarily on our reach and ability to deliver a strong return on investment.

Finally, we compete to attract and retain highly talented individuals, including software engineers, designers, and product managers. Our headquarters in Venice, California and our other principal offices in the Los Angeles area offer certain advantages, such as lower local recruiting competition from other companies and providing an enticing location to live, as well as certain disadvantages such as the increased need to recruit remotely and requiring employees to relocate to the Los Angeles area. In addition to providing competitive compensation packages, we compete for talent by fostering a culture of working hard to create great products and experiences and allowing our employees to have a direct meaningful contribution to new and exciting projects. We had 3,069 employees as of December 31, 2017.

Technology

Our research and development efforts focus on product development, advertising technology, and large-scale infrastructure.

Product Development: We work relentlessly and invest heavily to create and improve products for our community and our partners. We develop a wide range of products related to visual communication and storytelling that are powered by a variety of new technologies.

Advertising Technology: We constantly develop and expand our advertising products and technology. In an effort to provide a strong and scalable return on investment to our advertisers, our advertising technology roadmap centers around improving our delivery framework, measurement capabilities, and our self-service buying and creative tools.

Large-scale Infrastructure: We spend considerable resources and investment on the underlying architecture that powers our products, such as optimizing the delivery of billions of videos to hundreds of millions of people around the world every day. We currently partner with providers like Google and Amazon to support the infrastructure for our growing needs. These partnerships have allowed us to scale quickly without upfront infrastructure costs, letting us focus our efforts on product innovation.

Our research and development expenses were $1.5 billion, $183.7 million, and $82.2 million in 2017, 2016, and 2015, respectively. For information about our research and development expenses, see “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations—Research and Development Expenses” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Seasonality in Our Business

We have historically seen a high degree of seasonality in our business and financial results.business. Overall brand advertising spend tends to be strongest in the fourth quarter of the calendar year, and we have observed a similar pattern in our historical revenue. We have also experienced seasonality in our user engagement, generally seeing lower engagement during summer months. The rapid growthmonths and higher engagement in our business and user engagement has generally masked these trends to date, and we expect the impact of seasonality to be more pronounced in the future.December. 

Key Customers

No individual customer represented more than 10% of our revenues in 2017, 2016, or 2015.

Intellectual Property

Our success depends in part on our ability to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technologies. To protect our proprietary rights, we rely on a combination of intellectual property rights in the United States and other jurisdictions, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secret laws, license agreements, internal procedures, and contractual provisions. We also enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors and sign confidentiality agreements with third parties. Our internal controls are designed to restrict access to proprietary technology.

As of December 31, 2017,2021, we had 375approximately 1,524 issued patents and approximately 5142,223 filed patent applications in the United States and foreign countries relating to our camera platform and other technologies. Our issued patents will expire between 20182022 and 2036.2046. We may not be able to obtain protection for our intellectual property, and our existing and future patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property rights may not provide us with competitive advantages or distinguish our products and services from those of our competitors. Our patent applications may not result in the issuance of patents, and any resulting issued patents may have claims narrower than those in our patent applications. Additionally, our current and future patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property rights may be contested, circumvented, or found unenforceable or invalid, and we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing them. Our internal controls and contractual provisions may not always be effective at preventing unauthorized parties from obtaining our intellectual property and proprietary technologies.

We license content, trademarks, technology, and other intellectual property from our partners, and rely on our license agreements with those partners to use the intellectual property. We also enter into licensing agreements with third parties to receive rights to patents and other know-how. Third parties may assert claims related to intellectual property rights against our partners or us.

Other companies and “non-practicing entities” that own patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights related to the mobile, camera, communication, media,content, internet, and other technology-related industries frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, and other violations of intellectual property or other rights. Third parties, including our competitors and non-practicing entities, may make claims from time to time that we have infringed their patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, or other intellectual property rights. We are party to many agreements under which we are obligated to indemnify our customers, suppliers, and channel partners against such claims. As our business growscontinues to grow and competition increases, we will likely face more claims related to intellectual property and litigation matters. In addition, to the extent that we gain greater visibility and market exposure as a public company, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims from third parties.

Government Regulation

We are subject to many U.S. federal, and state, local, and foreign laws and regulations, including those related to privacy, rights of publicity, data protection, content regulation, intellectual property, health and safety, competition, protection of minors, consumer protection, employment, money transmission, import and export restrictions, gift cards, electronic funds transfers, anti-money laundering, advertising, algorithms, encryption, and taxation. These laws and regulations are constantly evolving and may be interpreted, applied, created, or amended in a manner that could harm our business. Compliance with these laws

and regulations has not had, and is not expected to have, a material effect on our capital expenditures, results of operations, and competitive position as compared to prior periods, and we do not currently anticipate material capital expenditures for environmental control facilities. 

In December 2014, the Federal Trade Commission resolved an investigation into some of our early practices by handing down a final order. That order requires, among other things, that we establish a robust privacy program to govern how we treat user data. During the 20-year lifespan of the order, we must complete bi-annualbiennial independent privacy audits. In June 2014, we entered into a 10-year assurance of discontinuance with the Attorney General of Maryland implementing similar practices, including measures to prevent minors from creating accounts and providing annual compliance reports. Violating existing or future regulatory orders or consent decrees could subject us to substantial monetary fines and other penalties that could negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Furthermore, foreign data protection, privacy, consumer protection, content regulation, and other laws and regulations are often more restrictive than those in the United States. It is possible that certain governments may seek to block or limit our products or otherwise impose other restrictions that may affect the accessibility or usability of any or all our products for an extended period of time or indefinitely. For example, we have very limited access to the China market, as we have not yet established an operating presence in China to support Snapchat. Access to Google, which currently powers our infrastructure, is restricted in China. Additionally, notNot all of our products are available in all locations including Spectacles, and may not be due to such laws and regulations. We have aOur public policy team that monitors legal and regulatory developments in the United States, as well as many foreign countries, and communicates with policymakers and regulators in the United States and internationally.

Corporate Information

We were formed as Future Freshman, LLC, a California limited liability company, in 2010. We changed our name to Toyopa Group, LLC in 2011, incorporated as Snapchat, Inc., a Delaware corporation, in 2012, and changed our name to Snap Inc. in 2016. We completed our initial public offering in March 2017 and our Class A common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, under the symbol “SNAP.”

Our principal executive offices are located at 63 Market3000 31st Street, Venice,Santa Monica, California 90291,90405, and our telephone number is (310) 399-3339. Snap Inc., “Snapchat,” and our other registered and common-law trade names, trademarks, and service marks appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are property of Snap Inc. or our subsidiaries.

Information about Segment and Geographic Revenue

Information about segment and geographic revenue is set forth in Notes 1 and 102 of the notes to our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statementsconsolidated financial statements included in “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Available Information

Our website address is www.snap.com. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Exchange Act are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. Such reports and other information filed or furnished by us with the SEC are available free of charge on our website at investor.snap.com when such reports are available on the SEC’s website. We use our website, including investor.snap.com, as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

Any person may read and copy any materials filed by us with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, N.E., Room 1580, Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC also maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers, like us, that file electronically with the SEC. The address of that website is www.sec.gov.

Information contained in, or accessible through, of the websites referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K areis not incorporated into this filing. Further, our references to website addresses are only as inactive textual references.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and the related notes. If any of the following risks actually occurs our business could be seriously harmed. Unless otherwise indicated, references to our business being seriously harmed in these risk factors will include harm to our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, revenue, and future prospects could be seriously harmed.prospects. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. Unless otherwise indicated, references to our business being seriously harmed in these risk factors will include harm to our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, revenue, and future prospects. In that event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment..

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Our ecosystem of users, advertisers, and partners depends on the engagement of our user base. We anticipate thathave seen the growth rate of our user base will decline over time.in the past and it may do so again in the future. If we fail to retain current users or add new users, or if our users engage less with Snapchat, our business would be seriously harmed.

We had 187319 million and 158 million Daily Active UsersDAUs on average in the quartersquarter ended December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively, and we2021. We view Daily Active UsersDAUs as a critical measure of our user engagement. Adding,engagement, and adding, maintaining, and engaging Daily Active UsersDAUs have been and will continue to be necessary. We anticipate that our Daily Active UsersOur DAUs and DAU growth rate willhave declined in the past and they may decline over time ifin the future due to various factors, including as the size of our active user base increases, oras we achieve higher market penetration rates.rates, as we face continued competition for our users and their time, or if there are performance issues with our application. For example, ifin 2018, we believe our DAUs declined primarily due to changes in the design of our application and whencontinued performance issues with the Android version of our application. In addition, as we achieve maximum market penetration rates among younger users in developed markets, who use smartphones with iOS operating systems, future growth in Daily Active UsersDAUs will need to come from older users in those markets, developing markets, or users with Android operating systems, which may not be possible or may be more difficult or time consumingtime-consuming for us to achieve. If our Daily Active Users growth rate slows, our financial performance will increasingly depend on our ability to elevate user engagement or increase our monetization of users. If current and potential users do not perceive our products to be fun, engaging, and useful,While we may experience periods when our DAUs increase due to products and services with short-term popularity, or due to a lack of other events that compete for our users’ attention, we may not always be able to attract new users, retain existing users, or maintain or increase the frequency and duration of their engagement.engagement if current or potential new users do not perceive our products to be fun, engaging, and useful. In addition, because our products typically require high bandwidth data capabilities in order for users to benefit from all of the majorityfeatures and capabilities of our application, many of our users live in countries with high-end mobile device penetration and high bandwidth capacity cellular networks with large coverage areas. We therefore do not expect to experience rapid user growth or engagement in countriesregions with either low smartphone penetration even if such countries haveor a lack of well-established and high bandwidth capacity cellular networks. We may also not experience rapidIf our DAU growth rate slows or becomes stagnant, or we have a decline in DAUs, our financial performance will increasingly depend on our ability to elevate user growthactivity or engagement in countries where, even though smartphone penetration is high, due toincrease the lackmonetization of sufficient cellular based data networks, consumers rely heavily on Wi-Fi and may not access our products regularly.users.

Snapchat is free and easy to join, the barrier to entry for new entrants in our business is low, and the switching costs to another platform are also low. Moreover, the majority of our users are 18-34 years old. This demographic may be less brand loyal and more likely to follow trends, including viral trends, than other demographics. These factors may lead users to switch to another product, which would negatively affect our user retention, growth, and engagement. Snapchat also may not be able to penetrate other demographics in a meaningful manner. Falling user retention, growth, or engagement could make Snapchat less attractive to advertisers and partners, which may seriously harm our business. In addition, our Daily Active Users may notwe continue to grow.compete with other companies to attract and retain our users’ attention. We measure our Daily Active Userscalculate average DAUs for a particular quarter by calculatingadding the daily averagenumber of users acrossDAUs on each day of that quarter and dividing that sum by the entirenumber of days in that quarter. This calculation may mask any individual days or months within the quarter that are significantly higher or lower than the quarterly average. There are many factors that could negatively affect user retention, growth, and engagement, including if:

Any decrease to user retention, growth, or engagement could render our products less attractive to users, advertisers, or partners, and would seriously harm our business.

Snapchat depends on effectively operating with mobile operating systems, hardware, networks, regulations, and standards that we do not control. Changes in our products or to those operating systems, hardware, networks, regulations, or standards may seriously harm our user retention, growth, and engagement.

Because Snapchat is used primarily on mobile devices, the application must remain interoperable with popular mobile operating systems, primarily Android and iOS, application stores, and related hardware, including but not limited to mobile-device cameras. The owners and operators of such operating systems and application stores, primarily Google and Apple, respectively, each have approval authority over our products and provide consumers with products that compete with ours.ours, and there is no guarantee that any approval will not be rescinded in the future. Additionally, mobile devices and mobile-device cameras are manufactured by a wide array of companies. Those companies have no obligation to test the interoperability of new mobile devices, mobile-device cameras, or related devices with Snapchat, and may produce new products that are incompatible with or not optimal for Snapchat. We have no control over these operating systems, application stores, or hardware, and any changes to these systems or hardware that degrade our products’ functionality, or give preferential treatment to competitive products, or actions by government authorities that impact our access to these systems or hardware, could seriously harm Snapchat usage on mobile devices. Our competitors that control the operating systems and related hardware our application runs on could make interoperability of our products with those mobile operating systems more difficult or display their competitive offerings more prominently than ours. Additionally, our competitors that control the standards for the application stores for their operating systems could make Snapchat, or certain features of Snapchat, inaccessible for a potentially significant period of time. We plan to continue to introduce new products and features regularly and have experienced that it takes time to optimize such products and features to function with these operating systems, hardware, and hardware,standards, impacting the popularity of such products, and we expect this trend to continue.

The majority of our user engagement is on smartphones with iOS operating systems. As a result, although our products work with Android mobile devices, we historically prioritized development of our products to operate with iOS operating systems rather than smartphones with Android operating systems. To continue growth in user engagement, we have and will continue to prioritize improving our products’ operability on smartphones with Android operating systems. If we are unable to improve operability of our products on smartphones with Android operating systems, and those smartphones become more popular and fewer people use smartphones with iOS operating systems, our business could be seriously harmed.

Moreover, our products require high-bandwidth data capabilities. If the costs of data usage increase or access to cellular networks is limited, our user retention, growth, and engagement may be seriously harmed. Additionally, to deliver high-quality video and other content over mobile cellular networks, our products must work well with a range of mobile technologies, systems, networks, regulations, and standards that we do not control. In particular, any future changes to the iOS or Android operating systems or application stores may impact the accessibility, speed, functionality, and other performance aspects of our products whichand features, and result in issues are likely to occur in the future from time to time. In addition, the proposal or adoption of any laws, regulations, or regulationsinitiatives that adversely affect the growth, popularity, or use of the internet, including laws governing internet neutrality, could decrease the demand for our products and increase our cost of doing business.

For example, in December 2017,January 2018, the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, voted to repealissued an order that repealed the “open internet rules,” which prohibit mobile providers in the United States from impeding access to most content, or otherwise unfairly discriminating against content providers like us and also prohibit mobile providers from entering into arrangements with specific content providers for faster or better access over their data networks. WhileThe FCC order repealing the FCC’s repealopen internet rules went into effect in June 2018. The core aspects of these net neutrality regulations has not yet taken effect,that order have been upheld by the future impactUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but a number of states have adopted or are considering legislation or executive actions to impose state-level open internet rules, and those actions have been or can be expected to be challenged in court. More recently, U.S. President Biden issued an executive order encouraging the FCC to restore the open internet rules. We cannot predict whether the FCC order or state initiatives regulating providers will ultimately be upheld, modified, overturned, or vacated by further legal action, federal legislation, or the FCC, or the degree to which such outcomes would adversely affect our business, if at all. Similarly, the European Union requires equal access to internet content, but as part of certain initiatives and reviews (including recent modifications to the European Electronic Communications Code and proposals to expand the scope and nature of the EU Network and Information Security Directive), the European Union may impose additional obligations, including network security requirements, reporting and transparency obligations, disability access, or 911-like obligations on certain “over-the-top” services or those that qualify as “electronic communication services.” If we are considered to be in the scope of such repeal and any challenges to the repeal remains uncertainservice definition, our costs of doing business could increase and our business could be seriously harmed. The European Union similarly requires equal accessUnion’s highest court has also issued rulings that may limit our ability to internet content. Additionally, as part of its Digital Single Market initiative, the European Union may impose network security, disability access, or 911-like obligations on “over-the-top” servicesengage in certain practices, such as those provided by us, which could increase our costs.“zero rating.” If the FCC’s repeal of the open internet rules is maintained, state initiatives are allowed to take effectmodified, overturned, or vacated, or the European Union modifies these open internet rules or limits commercial practices, mobile and internet providers may be able to limit our users’ ability to access Snapchat or make Snapchat a less attractive alternative to our competitors’ applications. Were that to happen, our ability to retain existing users or attract new users may be impaired, and our business would be seriously harmed.

We may not successfully cultivate relationships with key industry participants or develop products that operate effectively with these technologies, systems, networks, regulations, or standards. If it becomes more difficult for our users to access and use Snapchat on their mobile devices, if our users choose not to access or use Snapchat on their mobile devices, or if our users choose to use mobile products that do not offer access to Snapchat, our business and user retention, growth, and engagement could be seriously harmed.

We rely on Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, or AWS, for the vast majority of our computing, storage, bandwidth, and other services. Any disruption of or interference with our use of the Google Cloud operationeither platform would negatively affect our operations and seriously harm our business.

Google provides aand Amazon provide distributed computing infrastructure platformplatforms for business operations, or what is commonly referred to as a “cloud” computing service, and weservice. We currently run the vast majority of our computing on Google Cloud.

Any transition of the cloud services currently provided by Google Cloud to another cloud provider would be difficult to implement and will cause us to incur significant time and expense. We have committed to spend $2.0 billion with Google Cloud over five years (beginning January 2017) andAWS, have built our software and computer systems to use computing, storage capabilities, bandwidth, and other services provided by Google someand AWS, and our systems are not fully redundant on the two platforms. Any transition of which do not have an alternative in the market.cloud services currently provided by either Google Cloud or AWS to the other platform or to another cloud provider would be difficult to implement and would cause us to incur significant time and expense. Given this, any significant disruption of or interference with our use of Google Cloud or AWS would negatively impact our operations and our business would be seriously harmed. If our users or partners are not able to access Snapchat through Google Cloudor specific Snapchat features, or encounter difficulties in doing so, due to issues or disruptions with Google Cloud or AWS, we may lose users, partners, or advertising revenue. The level of service provided by Google Cloud and AWS or similar providers may also impact the usage of and our users’, advertisers’, and partners’ usage of and satisfaction with Snapchat and could seriously harm our business and reputation. If Google Cloud, AWS, or similar providers experience interruptions in service regularly or for a prolonged basis, or other similar issues, our business would be seriously harmed. Hosting costs also have and will continue to increase as our user base and user engagement grows and may seriously harm our business if we are unable to grow our revenues faster than the cost of utilizing the services of Google Cloud, AWS, or similar providers.

In addition, each of Google and Amazon may take actions beyond our control that could seriously harm our business, including:

Google and Amazon each has broad discretion to change and interpret its terms of service and other policies with respect to us, and those actions may be unfavorable to us. GoogleThey may also alter how we are able to process data on thetheir cloud platforms. If Google Cloud platform. If Googleor Amazon makes changes or interpretations that are unfavorable to us, our business wouldcould be seriously harmed.

We generate substantially all of our revenue from advertising. The failure to attract new advertisers, the loss of advertisers, or a reduction in how much they spend could seriously harm our business.

Substantially all of our revenue is generated from third parties advertising on Snapchat, a trend that we expect to continue.Snapchat. For the years ended December 31, 20172021, 2020, and 2016,2019, advertising revenue accounted for 97%approximately 99%, 99%, and 96%98% of total revenue, respectively. We expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. Although we have and continue to try to establish longer-term advertising commitments with advertisers, most advertisers do not have long-term advertising commitments with us, and our efforts to establish long-term commitments may not succeed.

While no individual customer accounts for more than 10%We are still early in developing our advertising business. Our advertising customers vary from small businesses to well-known brands. Many of our revenue, many of our advertiserscustomers only recently started working with usour advertising solutions and spend a relatively small portion of their overall advertising budget with us.us, but some customers have devoted meaningful budgets that contribute to our total revenue. In addition, advertisers may view some of our products as experimental and unproven.unproven, or prefer certain of our products over others. Advertisers will not continue to do business with us if we do not deliver advertisements in an effective manner, or if they do not believe that their investment in advertising with us will generate a competitive return relative to other alternatives. As our business continues to develop, including globally, there may be new or existing advertisers or resellers, or advertisers or resellers from different geographic regions that contribute more significantly to our total revenue. Any economic or political instability, whether as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, in a specific country or region may negatively impact the global or local economy, advertising ecosystem, our customers and their budgets with us, or our ability to forecast our advertising revenue, and our business would be seriously harmed.

Moreover, we rely heavily on our ability to collect and disclose data and metrics to and for our advertisers toso we can attract new advertisers and retain existing advertisers. Any restriction, whether by law, regulation, policy, or other reason, on our ability to collect and disclose data and metrics which our advertisers find useful would impede our ability to attract and retain advertisers. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in the European Union, which went into effect in May 2018, expanded the rights of individuals to control how their personal data is collected and processed, and placed restrictions on the use of personal data of younger minors. In addition, in the United States, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, went into effect in January 2020, and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or CPRA, which replaces the CCPA and goes into effect in January 2023, place additional requirements on the handling of personal data for us, our partners, and our advertisers. The CCPA and CPRA also provide for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches, which may increase the likelihood and cost of data breach litigation. The potential effects of this legislation, including any regulations implemented by the legislation, are far-reaching, uncertain, and evolving, and may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply. Other state, federal, and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies have also implemented or may implement similar legislation regarding the handling of personal data. For example, in the United States, the Commonwealth of Virginia enacted the Consumer Data Protection Act and the State of Colorado enacted the Colorado Privacy Act, both of which take effect January 1, 2023 and may impose obligations similar to or more stringent than those we may face under other data protection laws. Further, changes in the European Union’s Electronic Communications Code, which became effective in December 2020, may result in the expanded applicability of the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive over parts of our services, requiring us to make changes to how we process and store certain types of communications data of users in the European Union, which could have a material impact on the availability of data we rely on to improve and personalize our products and features.

Furthermore, in April 2021 Apple issued an iOS update that imposes heightened restrictions on our access and use of user data. Google has announced that it will implement similar changes with respect to its Android operating system and major web browsers, like Safari and Chrome, may make similar changes as well. These changes have adversely affected our targeting, measurement, and optimization capabilities, and in turn affected our ability to measure the effectiveness of advertisements on our services. This has resulted in, and in the future is likely to continue to result in, reduced demand and pricing for our advertising products and could seriously harm our business. The impact of these changes on the overall mobile advertising ecosystem, our competitors, our business, and the developers, partners, and advertisers within our community is uncertain, and depending on how we, our competitors, and the overall mobile advertising ecosystem adjusts, and how our partners, advertisers, and users respond, our business could be seriously harmed. In addition, if we are unable to mitigate these and future developments, and alternative methods do not become widely adopted by our advertisers, then our targeting, measurement, and optimization capabilities will be materially and adversely affected, which would in turn continue to negatively impact our advertising revenue. Any adverse effects could be particularly material to us because we are still early in building our advertising business. Our advertising revenue could also be seriously harmed by many other factors, including:

These and other factors could reduce demand for our advertising products, which may lower the prices we receive, or cause advertisers to stop advertising with us altogether. Either of these would seriously harm our business.

Our two co-founders have control over all stockholder decisions because they control a substantial majority of our voting stock.

As a result of the Class C common stock that they hold,Our two co-founders, Evan Spiegel our co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Robert Murphy, our co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, are able to exercise voting rights with respect to an aggregate of 216,615,870 shares of Class C common stock, which represents approximately 94.6%control over 99% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock as of December 31, 2017. In addition, Mr. Spiegel was granted an RSU for 37,447,817 shares of Class C common stock on the closing of our initial public offering, or IPO. This RSU award vested immediately on the closing of our IPO in March 20172021, and such shares are delivered to our CEO in quarterly installments over three years beginning in November 2017, following which Mr. Spiegel alone may be able tocan exercise voting control over a majority of our outstanding capital stock. The Class A common stock has no voting rights, the Class B common stock is entitled to one vote per share, and the Class C common stock is entitled to ten votes per share. As a result, Mr. Spiegel and Mr. Murphy, and potentially either one of themor in many instances Mr. Spiegel acting alone, have the ability to control the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election, removal, and replacement of our directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets.

If Mr. Spiegel’s or Mr. Murphy’s employment with us is terminated, they will continue to have the ability to exercise the same significant voting power and potentially control the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval. Either of our co-founders’ shares of Class C common stock will automatically convert into Class B common stock, on a one-to-one basis, nine months following his death or on the date on which the number of outstanding shares of Class C common stock held by such holder represents less than 30% of the Class C common stock held by such holder on the closing of our IPO, or 32,383,178 shares of Class C common stock. Should either of our co-founders’ Class C common stock be converted to Class B common stock, the remaining co-founder will be able to exercise voting control over our outstanding capital stock. Moreover, Mr. Spiegel and Mr. Murphy have entered into a proxy agreement under which each has granted to the other a voting proxy with respect to all shares of our Class B common stock and Class C common stock that each may beneficially own from time to time or have voting control over. The proxy would become effective on either founder’s death or disability. Accordingly, on the death or incapacity of either Mr. Spiegel or Mr. Murphy, the other could individually control nearly all of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock.

In addition, in October 2016, we issued a dividend of one share of non-voting Class A common stock to all our equity holders, which will prolong our co-founders’ voting control. As a result of such dividend,control because our co-founders will beare able to liquidate their holdings of non-voting Class A common stock without diminishing their voting control. In the future, our board of directors may, from time to time, decide to issue special or regular stock dividends in the form of Class A common stock, and if we do so our co-founders’ control could be further prolonged. This concentrated control could delay, defer, or prevent a change of control, merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets that our other stockholders support. Conversely, this concentrated control could allow our co-founders to consummate such a transaction that our other stockholders do not support. In addition, our co-founders may make long-term strategic investment decisions and take risks that may not be successful and may seriously harm our business.

As our CEO,Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Spiegel has control over our day-to-day management and the implementation of major strategic investments of our company, subject to authorization and oversight by our board of directors. As board members and officers, Mr. Spiegel and Mr. Murphy owe a fiduciary duty to our stockholders and must act in good faith in a manner they reasonably believe to be in the best interests of our stockholders. As stockholders, even controlling stockholders, Mr. Spiegel and Mr. Murphy are entitled to vote their shares, and shares over which they have voting control, in their own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally. We have not elected to take advantage of the “controlled company” exemption to the corporate governance rules for companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, listed companies. Moreover, Mr. SpiegelNYSE.

Health epidemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have had, and Mr. Murphycould in the future have, entered into a proxy agreement underan adverse impact on our business, operations, and the markets and communities in which each has granted a voting proxy with respectwe and our partners, advertisers, and users operate.

The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted, and may continue to all sharesadversely impact, many aspects of our Class B common stockbusiness. As some of our advertisers experience downturns or uncertainty in their own business operations and Class C common stock revenue because of the economic effects resulting from the spread of COVID-19 and the emergence of variants, they halted or decreased or may halt, decrease, or continue to decrease, temporarily or permanently, their advertising spending or may focus their advertising spending more on other platforms, all of which may result in decreased advertising revenue. Labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and inflation continue to cause logistical challenges, increased input costs, and inventory constraints for our advertisers, which in turn may also halt or decrease advertising spending. Furthermore, a portion of our advertising revenue is related to in-person events or activities, such as sporting events, music festivals, and in-person learning, which were postponed, cancelled, or limited during the COVID-19 pandemic and may continue to be adversely affected. In addition, the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic may make it difficult to forecast our advertising revenue, and although we may benefit in the shorter term from changes in the current advertising landscape, any increases may not be indicative of longer-term trends. Any decline in advertising revenue or the collectability of our receivables could seriously harm our business.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many federal, state, local, and foreign governments put in place, and others in the future may put in place, quarantines, executive actions, shelter-in-place orders, physical distancing requirements, and similar government orders and restrictions in order to control the spread of the disease. Such orders or restrictions, or the perception

that eachsuch orders or restrictions could occur, continue, or be reimplemented, have resulted in business closures, work stoppages, slowdowns and delays, work-from-home policies, travel restrictions, and cancellation or postponement of events, among other effects that could negatively impact productivity and disrupt our operations and those of our partners, advertisers, and users. We implemented and continue a flexible work-from-home policy for substantially all of our team members, and we may beneficially own fromtake further actions that alter our operations as may be required by federal, state, or local authorities, or which we believe are in our best interests. While most of our operations can be performed remotely, there is no guarantee that we will be as effective while working remotely because our team is dispersed, many team members may have additional personal needs to attend to (such as looking after children as a result of school closures or family who become sick), and team members may become sick themselves and be unable to work. Decreased effectiveness of our team could adversely affect our results due to our inability to meet in person with potential advertisers, longer time periods to review and approve ads, longer time to timerespond to application performance issues or have voting control over. spam, extended timelines for product reviews and a corresponding reduction in innovation, or other decreases in productivity that could seriously harm our business. Furthermore, we may decide to postpone or cancel planned investments in our business in response to changes in our business as a result of the spread of COVID-19 or the emergence of variants, which may impact our user engagement and rate of innovation, either of which could seriously harm our business.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our partners and community who provide content or services to us may experience delays or interruptions in their ability to create content or provide services, if they are able to do so at all. A decrease in the amount or quality of content available on Snapchat, or an interruption in the services provided to us, could lead to a decline in user engagement, which could seriously harm our business.

The proxy would become effectiveeffects of the COVID-19 pandemic on either founder’s deathuser engagement or disability. Mr. Spiegelgrowth are highly uncertain, and Mr. Murphy have each initially designatedmay lead to unpredictable results in the othershort term and long term, including shorter-term increases in user engagement or growth that may not be indicative of longer-term trends. As physical distancing requirements and shelter-in-place orders continue or are reactivated, and as their respective proxies. Accordingly,fewer in-person activities take place, we may experience short-term and long-term disruption to user behavior and our business. We may also experience inconsistent or negative engagement as user behavior on our platform changes, including changes in user activity as a result of continued physical distancing requirements and shelter-in-place orders. In addition, while the potential impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic on the deathglobal economy and our business in particular may be difficult to assess or incapacitypredict, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant volatility and disruption of either Mr. Spiegelglobal financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could negatively affect our liquidity in the future.

The global impact of COVID-19 has and continues to rapidly evolve, and we will continue to monitor the situation closely. While there have been vaccines developed and administered, and the spread of COVID-19 may eventually be contained or Mr. Murphy,mitigated, we cannot predict the other could individually control nearly alltiming of the voting powervaccine adoption or roll-out globally or the efficacy of such vaccines, including against variants that emerge, and we do not yet know how businesses, advertisers, or our outstanding capital stock.partners will operate in a post-COVID-19 environment. Our users may change how they use our products and services in an environment where the perceived risk of COVID-19 and regulations surrounding it have changed. There may be additional costs or impacts to our business and operations, including when we are able to return to our offices and resume in-person activities, travel, and events. In addition, there is no guarantee that a future outbreak of this or any other widespread epidemics will not occur, or if or when the global economy will fully recover. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic on our business, operations, or the global economy as a whole remains highly uncertain.

If we do not develop successful new products or improve existing ones, our business will suffer. We may also invest in new lines of business that could fail to attract or retain users or generate revenue.

Our ability to engage, retain, and increase our user base and to increase our revenue will depend heavily on our ability to successfully create new products, both independently and together with third parties. We may introduce significant changes to our existing products or develop and introduce new and unproven products and services, including technologies with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. These new products and updates may fail to increase the engagement of our users, advertisers, or partners, may subject us to increased regulatory requirements or scrutiny, and may even result in short-term or long-term decreases in such engagement by disrupting existing user, advertiser, or partner behavior or by introducing performance and quality issues. For example, beginning in 2017, we transitioned most ofstarted transitioning our Snap Adsadvertising sales to a programmatic model,self-serve platform, which decreased average advertising prices. Additionally,In 2018, we introduced a major redesign of the Snapchat application in December 2017 that rolled out more broadly in February 2018, which has received negative attentionbelieve our DAUs declined primarily due to changes in the pressdesign of our application and in app store reviews.continued performance issues with the Android version of our application. The short- and long-term impact of any major change, like our recentearly 2018 application redesign and the rewrite of our application for Android users in 2019, or even a less significant change such as a refresh of the application or a feature change, is particularly difficult to predict. IfAlthough we believe that these decisions will benefit the aggregate user experience and improve our financial performance over the long term, we may experience disruptions or declines in our DAUs or user activity broadly or concentrated on certain portions of our application. Product innovation is inherently volatile, and if new or enhanced products

fail to engage our users, advertisers, or partners, or if we fail to give our users meaningful reasons to return to our application, we may fail to attract or retain users or to generate sufficient revenue, operating margin, or other value to justify our investments, any of which may seriously harm our business in the short term, long term, or both. Additionally, we frequently launch new products and the products that we launch may have technical issues that diminish the performance of our application. These performance issues or issues that we encounter in the future could impact our user engagement.

Because our products created new ways of communicating, they have often required users to learn new behaviors to use our products, or to use our products repeatedly to receive the most benefit. These new behaviors, such as swiping and tapping in the Snapchat application, are not always intuitive to users. This can create a lag in adoption of new products and new user additions related to new products. To date,We believe this has not hindered our user growth or engagement, but that may be the result of a large portion of our user base being in a younger demographic and more willing to invest the time to learn to use our products most effectively. To the extent that future users, including those in older demographics, are less willing to invest the time to learn to use our products, and if we are unable to make our products easier to learn to use, our user growth or engagement could be affected, and our business could be harmed. We may also develop new products or initiatives that increase user engagement and costs without increasing revenue. For example, in 2016, we introduced Memories, in 2016, our cloud storage service for Snaps, which increases our storage costs.costs but does not currently generate revenue.

In addition, we have invested, and expect to continue to invest, in new lines of business, new products, and other initiatives to generate revenue. The launch of Spectaclesincrease our user base and user activity, and attempt to monetize the platform. For example, in late 2016, which has not2019 we launched Snap Games, a live, multi-player gaming experience, and may not generate significant revenuein November 2020 we launched Spotlight, a new entertainment platform for us, is a good example. We do not have significant experience with hardware products, and we have incurred Spectacles inventory-related charges and may incur increased costs in connection with the development, sale, and marketing of hardware

products. There is no guarantee that investing inuser-generated content within Snapchat. Such new lines of business, new products, and other initiatives may be costly, difficult to operate, and divert management’s attention, and there is no guarantee that they will succeed.be positively received by our community or provide positive returns on our investment. In certain cases, new products that we develop may require regulatory approval prior to launch or may require us to comply with additional regulations or legislation. There is no guarantee that we will be able to obtain such regulatory approval, and our efforts to comply with these laws and regulations could be costly and divert management’s time and effort and may still not guarantee compliance. If we do not successfully develop new approaches to monetization or meet the expectations of our users or partners, we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenue as anticipated or recover any associated development costs, and our business could be seriously harmed.

Our business is highly competitive. We face significant competition that we anticipate will continue to intensify. If we are not able to maintain or improve our market share, our business could suffer.

We face significant competition in almost every aspect of our business both domestically and internationally. This includesinternationally, especially because our products and services operate across a broad list of categories, including camera, communication, content, games, and augmented reality. Our competitors range from smaller or newer companies to larger more established companies such as Alphabet (including Google and YouTube), Apple, ByteDance (including TikTok), Kakao, LINE, Meta (including Facebook, (including Instagram, and WhatsApp), Google (including YouTube), Twitter, Kakao, LINE, Naver (including Snow), Pinterest, Tencent, and Tencent, which provide their users withTwitter. Our competitors also include platforms that offer, or will offer, a variety of products, services, content, and online advertising offerings and smaller companies that offer products and services thatcompete or may compete with specific Snapchat features.features or offerings. For example, Instagram, a subsidiarycompeting application owned by Meta, has incorporated many of Facebook, introducedour features, including a “stories” feature that largely mimics our Stories feature and may be directly competitive. Meta has introduced, and likely will continue to introduce, more private ephemeral products into its various platforms which mimic other aspects of Snapchat’s core use case. We also compete for users and their time, so we may also lose users or their attention not only to small companies that offer products and services that specifically compete with specific Snapchat features because of the low cost for our usersor offerings, but to switchcompanies with products or services that target or otherwise appeal to a different productcertain demographics, such as Discord or service.Roblox. Moreover, in emerging international markets, where mobile devices often lack large storage capabilities, we may compete with other applications for the limited space available on a user’s mobile device. We also face competition from traditional and online media businesses for advertising budgets. We compete broadly with the social media offerings of Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Google,ByteDance, Meta, Pinterest, and Twitter, and with other, largely regional, social media platforms that have strong positions in particular countries. As we introduce new products, as our existing products evolve, or as other companies introduce new products and services, we may become subject to additional competition. For example, in late 2016, we launched Spectacles, our first hardware product. While we view Spectacles as an extension of Snapchat, adding hardware productsIn addition, ongoing changes to privacy laws and services to our product portfolio subjectsmobile operating systems have made it more difficult for us to additional competitiontarget and new competitors.measure advertisements effectively. As a result, our competitors may, and in some cases will, acquire and engage users or generate advertising or other revenue at the expense of our own efforts, which would negatively affect our business.

Many of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater resources and broader global recognition and occupy stronger competitive positions in certain marketsmarket segments than we do. These factors may allow our competitors to respond to new or emerging technologies and changes in market requirements better than we can. Our competitors may also develop products, features, or services that are similar to ours or that achieve greater market acceptance. These products, features, and services maycan, undertake more far-reaching and successful product development efforts or marketing campaigns, or may adopt more aggressive pricing policies. In addition, advertisers may use information that our users share through Snapchat to develop or work with competitors to develop products or features that compete with us. Certain competitors, including Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, and Google,Meta, could use strong or dominant positions in one or more marketsmarket segments to gain competitive advantages against us in areas where we operate, including by:

to maintain a dominant position. As a result, our competitors may acquire and engage users at the expense of our user base, growth, or engagement, which may seriously harm our business.

We believe that our ability to compete effectively depends on many factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

If we cannot effectively compete, our user engagement may decrease, which could make us less attractive to users, advertisers, and partners and seriously harm our business.

We have incurred operating losses in the past, expect to incur operating losses in the future, and may never achieve ornot be able to maintain profitability.

We began commercial operations in 2011 and for all of our history we have historically experienced net losses and negative cash flows from operations. As of December 31, 2017,2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $4.7$8.3 billion and, while we achieved profitability in the fourth quarter of 2021, for the year ended December 31, 2017,2021, we experienced a net loss of $3.4 billion.$488.0 million. We expect our operating expenses to increase in the future as we expand our operations.  If our revenue does not grow at a greater rate than our expenses, we will not be able to achieve and maintain profitability. We may incur significant losses in the future for many reasons, including without limitationdue to the other risks and uncertainties described in this report. Additionally, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, operating delays, or other unknown factors that may result in losses in future periods.periods. If our expenses exceedrevenue does not grow at a greater rate than our revenue,expenses, our business may be seriously harmed and we may never achieve ornot be able to maintain profitability.

The loss of one or more of our key personnel, or our failure to attract and retain other highly qualified personnel in the future, could seriously harm our business.

We depend on the continued services and performance of our key personnel, including EvanMr. Spiegel and RobertMr. Murphy. Although we have entered into employment agreements with Mr. Spiegel and Mr. Murphy, the agreements are at-will, which means that they may resign or could be terminated for any reason at any time. Mr. Spiegel and Mr. Murphy are high profile individuals who have received threats in the past and are likely to continue to receive threats in the future. While Mr. Spiegel, as CEO,Chief Executive Officer, has been responsible for our company’s strategic vision and Mr. Murphy, as CTO,Chief Technology Officer, developed the Snapchat application’s technical foundation, shouldfoundation. Should either of them stop working for us for any reason, it is unlikely that the other co-founder would be able to fulfill all of the responsibilities of the departing co-founder. Norco-founder nor is it likely that we would be able to immediately find a suitable replacement. The loss of key personnel, including members of management and key engineering, product development, marketing, and sales personnel, could disrupt our operations, adversely impact employee retention and morale, and seriously harm our business.

As we continue to grow, we cannot guarantee we will continue to attract and retain the personnel we need to maintain our competitive position. In particular, we intend to hire a significant number of engineering and sales personnel in the Los Angeles area, and we expect toWe face significant competition in hiring them and difficulties in attracting qualified engineers, designers, and sales personnel, and the recent move by companies to moveoffer a remote or hybrid work environment may increase the competition for such employees from employers outside of our traditional office locations. Further, labor is subject to external factors that are beyond our control, including our industry’s highly competitive market for skilled workers and leaders, cost inflation, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and workforce participation rates. In addition, if our reputation were to be harmed, whether as a result of media, legislative, or regulatory scrutiny or otherwise, it could make it more difficult to attract and retain personnel that are critical to the Los Angeles area.success of our business.

As we mature, the incentivesor if our stock price declines, our equity awards may not be as effective an incentive to attract, retain, and motivate employees provided byteam members. Additionally, many of our equity awards or by future arrangements, such as through cash bonuses, may not be as effective as in the past. Additionally, we have many current employees whose equity ownership in our company gives them a substantial amount of personal wealth. Likewise, we have many current employees with fully vested equity awards whoteam members received substantial amounts of our capital stock, on or after our IPO. Now that the lock-up period has expired, attritiongiving them a substantial amount of personal wealth, which can lead to an increase in attrition. As a result, it may increase. Additionally,be difficult for us to continue to retain and motivate these team members, and this wealth could affect their decision about whether they continue to work for us. Furthermore, if we issue significant equity to attract and retain employees,team members, we would incur substantial additional stock-based compensation expense and the ownership of our existing stockholders would be further diluted. As a result, it may be difficult for us to continue to retain and motivate these

employees, and this wealth could affect their decision about whether they continue to work for us. If we do not succeed in attracting, hiring, and integrating excellent personnel, or retaining and motivating existing personnel, we may be unable to grow effectively and our business could be seriously harmed.

We have a short operating history and a newcontinually evolving business model, which makes it difficult to evaluate our prospects and future financial results and increases the risk that we will not be successful.

We began commercial operations in 2011 and began meaningfully monetizing Snapchat in 2015. We started transitioning our advertising sales to a self-serve platform in 2017. We have a short operating historycontinually evolving business model, based on reinventing the camera to improve the way that people live and a new business model,communicate, which makes it difficult to effectively assess our future prospects. Accordingly, we believe that investors’ future perceptions and expectations, which can be idiosyncratic and vary widely, and which we do not control, will affect our stock price. Our business model is based on reinventing the camera to improve the way that people live and communicate. You should consider our business and prospects in light of the many challenges we face, including the ones discussed in this section.report.

If our security is compromised or if our platform is subjected to attacks that frustrate or thwart our users’ ability to access our products and services, our users, advertisers, and partners may cut back on or stop using our products and services altogether, which could seriously harm our business.

Our efforts to protect the information that our users and advertisers have shared with us may be unsuccessful due to the actions of third parties, software bugs or other technical malfunctions, employee error or malfeasance, or other factors. In

addition, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees, users, or usersadvertisers to disclose information to gain access to our data or our users’ or advertisers’ data. If any of these events occur, our or our users’ or advertisers’ information could be accessed or disclosed improperly. We have previously suffered the loss of employee information related to an employee error. Our Privacy Policy governs how we may use and share the information that our users have provided us. Some advertisers and partners may store information that we share with them. If these third parties fail to implement adequate data-security practices or fail to comply with our terms and policies, our users’ data may be improperly accessed or disclosed. And even if these third parties take all of these steps, their networks may still suffer a breach, which could compromise our users’ data.

Any incidents where our users’ or advertisers’ information is accessed without authorization, or is improperly used, or incidents that violate our Terms of Service or policies, could damage our reputation and our brand and diminish our competitive position. In addition, affected users or government authorities could initiate legal or regulatory action against us over those incidents, which could be time-consuming and cause us to incur significant expense and liability or result in orders or consent decrees forcing us to modify our business practices. Maintaining the trust of our users is important to sustain our growth, retention, and user engagement. Concerns over our privacy practices, whether actual or unfounded, could damage our reputation and brand and deter users, advertisers, and partners from using our products and services. Any of these occurrences could seriously harm our business.

Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly prevalent and severe. To alleviate the financial, operational, and reputational impact of a ransomware attack, it may be preferable to make extortion payments, but we may be unwilling or unable to do so, including, for example, if applicable laws or regulations prohibit such payments. Similarly, supply chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties in our supply chain have not been compromised or that they do not contain exploitable defects or bugs that could result in a breach of or disruption to our platform, systems, and networks or the systems and networks of third parties that support us and our services. Any such attack, or the perception that one has occurred, could result in a loss of our users’ or advertisers’ confidence in the security of our platform and damage to our brand, reduce the demand for our products and services, disrupt business operations, result in the exfiltration of proprietary data, including source code, require us to spend material resources to investigate or correct the breach and to prevent future security breaches and incidents, expose us to legal liabilities, including litigation, regulatory enforcement, and indemnity obligations, claims by our customers or other relevant parties that we have failed to comply with contractual obligations, and seriously harm our business.

We also are alsoor may in the future be subject to many federal, state, local, and foreign laws and regulations, including those related to privacy, rights of publicity, content, data protection, content regulation, intellectual property, health and safety, competition, protection of minors, consumer protection, employment, money transmission, import and export restrictions, gift cards, electronic funds transfers, anti-money laundering, advertising, algorithms, encryption, and taxation. These laws and regulations are constantly evolving and may be interpreted, applied, created, or amended in a manner that could seriously harm our business.

In addition, in December 2014, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission or the FTC, resolved an investigation into some of our early practices by issuing a final order. That order requires, among other things, that we establish a robust privacy program to govern how we treat user data. During the 20-year term of the order, we must complete bi-annualbiennial independent privacy audits. In addition, in June 2014, we entered into a 10-year assurance of discontinuance with the Attorney General of Maryland implementing similar practices, including measures to prevent minors under the age of 13 from creating accounts and providing annual compliance reports. Violating existing or future regulatory orders or consent decrees could subject us to substantial monetary fines and other penalties that could seriously harm our business.

Our user metrics and other estimates are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in those metrics may seriously harm and negatively affect our reputation and our business.

We regularly review metrics, including our Daily Active UsersDAUs and ARPU metrics, to evaluate growth trends, measure our performance, and make strategic decisions. These metrics are calculated using internal company data gathered on an analytics platform that we developed and operate and have not been validated by an independent third party. While these numbersmetrics are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our user base for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our products are used across large populations globally. For example, we believe that there aremay be individuals who have multiple Snapchat accounts, even though we forbid that in our Terms of Service and implement measures to detect and suppress that behavior. Our user metrics are also affected by technology on certain mobile devices that automatically runs in the background of our Snapchat application when another phone function is used, and this activity can cause our system to miscount the user metrics associated with such account.

Some of our demographic data may be incomplete or inaccurate. For example, because users self-report their dates of birth, our age-demographic data may differ from our users’ actual ages. And because users who signed up for Snapchat before June 2013 were not asked to supply their date of birth, we may exclude those users andfrom age demographics or estimate their ages based on a sample of the self-reported ages we do have. If our Daily Active Usersusers provide us with incorrect or incomplete information regarding their age or other attributes, then our estimates may prove inaccurate and fail to meet investor or advertiser expectations.

In the past we have relied on third-party analytics providers to calculateErrors or inaccuracies in our metrics but todayor data could also result in incorrect business decisions and inefficiencies. For instance, if a significant understatement or overstatement of active users were to occur, we rely primarily onmay expend resources to implement unnecessary business measures or fail to take required actions to attract a sufficient number of users to satisfy our analytics platform that we developed and operate. For example, before June 2015, we used a third party that counted a Daily Active User when the application was opened or a notification was received via the application on any device.growth strategies. We now use an analytics platform that we developed and operate and we count a Daily Active User onlyDAU when a user opens the application, andbut only once per user per day. We believe this methodology more accurately measures our user engagement. We have multiple pipelines of user data that we use to determine whether a user has opened the application during a particular day, and thus isbecoming a Daily Active User.DAU. This provides redundancy in the event one pipeline of data were to become unavailable for technical reasons, and also gives us redundant data to help measure how users interact with our application.

Additionally, to align our pre-June 2015 Daily Active Users with this new methodology, However, we reduced our pre-June 2015 Daily Active Users by 4.8%, the amount by which we estimated the data generated by the third party was overstated. Since this adjustment is an estimate, the actual pre-June 2015 Daily Active Users may be higher or lower than our reported numbers. As a result, our metrics may not be comparable to prior periods.

Errors or inaccuracies in our metrics or data could result in incorrect business decisions and inefficiencies. For instance, if a significant understatement or overstatement of Daily Active Users were to occur, we may expend resources to implement unnecessary business measures or fail to take required actions to attract a sufficient number of users to satisfy our growth strategies. We believe that we do not capture all data regarding our Daily Active Users.active users, which may result in understated metrics. This generally occurs because of technical issues, likefor instance when our systems do not record data from everya user’s Snapchat application. We also seek to identify missed activityapplication or when data is lost or not captured, which may result in understated metrics. For example, a user may openopens the Snapchat application and contactcontacts our servers but is not be recorded as a Daily Active User.an active user. We are continually seekingseek to address these technical issues and improve our accuracy, such as comparing our Daily Active Usersactive users and other metrics with data received from other pipelines, including data recorded by our servers and systems. But given the complexity of the systems involved and the rapidly changing nature of mobile devices and systems, we expect these issues to continue.continue, particularly if we continue to expand in parts of the world where mobile data systems and connections are less stable. If advertisers, partners, or investors do not perceive our user, geographic, or other demographic metrics to be accurate representations of our user base, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our user, geographic, or other demographic metrics, our reputation may be seriously harmed. And at the same time,Our advertisers and partners may also be less willing to allocate their budgets or resources to Snapchat, which could seriously harm our business. In addition, we measure our Daily Active Userscalculate average DAUs for a particular quarter by calculatingadding the daily averagenumber of users acrossDAUs on each day of that quarter and dividing that sum by the number of days in that quarter. This calculation may mask any individual days or months within the quarter that are significantly higher or lower than the quarterly average.

Mobile malware, viruses, hacking and phishing attacks, spamming, and improper or illegal use of Snapchat could seriously harm our business and reputation.

Mobile malware, viruses, hacking, and phishing attacks have become more prevalent and sophisticated in our industry, have occurred on our systems in the past, and may occur on our systems in the future. Because of our prominence, we believe that we are an attractive target for these sorts of attacks. Although it is difficult to determine what, if any, harm may directly result from an interruption or attack, any failure to detect such attack and maintain performance, reliability, security, and availability of our products and technical infrastructure to the satisfaction of our users may seriously harm our reputation and our ability to retain existing users and attract new users.

In addition, spammers attempt to use our products to send targeted and untargeted spam messages to users, which may embarrass or annoy users and make our products less user friendly. We cannot be certain that the technologies that we have developed to repel spamming attacks will be able to eliminate all spam messages from our products. Our actions to combat spam may also require diversion of significant time and focus of our engineering team from improving our products. As a result of spamming activities, our users may use our products less or stop using them altogether, and result in continuing operational cost to us.

Similarly, terrorterrorists, criminals, and other criminal groupsbad actors may use our products to promote their goals and encourage users to engage in terror and other illegal activities. We expect that as more people use our products, these groupsbad actors will increasingly seek to misuse our products. Although we invest resources to combat these activities, including by suspending or terminating accounts we believe are violating our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines, we expect these groupsbad actors will continue to

seek ways to act inappropriately and illegally on Snapchat. Combating these groupsbad actors requires our engineering teamteams to divert significant time and focus from improving our products. In addition, we may not be able to control or stop Snapchat from becoming the preferred application of use by these groups,bad actors, which may become public knowledge and seriously harm our reputation or lead to lawsuits or attention from regulators. If these activities increase on Snapchat, our reputation, user growth and user engagement, and operational cost structure could be seriously harmed.

Because we store, process, and use data, some of which contains personal information,data, we are subject to complex and evolving federal, state, and foreign laws,regulations, and regulationsexecutive actions regarding privacy, data protection, content, and other matters. Many of these laws, regulations, and regulationsexecutive actions are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in investigations, claims, changes to our business practices, increased cost of operations, and declines in user growth, retention, or engagement, any of which could seriously harm our business.

We are subject to a variety of laws, regulations, and regulationsexecutive actions in the United States and other countries that involve matters central to our business, including user privacy, security, rights of publicity, data protection, content, intellectual property, distribution, electronic contracts and other communications, competition, protection of minors, consumer protection, taxation, and online-payment services. These laws, regulations, and executive actions can be particularly restrictive in countries outside the United States. Both in the United States and abroad, these laws, regulations, and regulationsexecutive actions constantly evolve, and remain subject to significant change. change, and may be issued with limited advance notice. For example, an executive order under the prior U.S. administration was issued prohibiting certain transactions with a Chinese-owned company, with the prohibition becoming effective 45 days after the date of the order.In addition, the application and interpretation of these laws, regulations, and regulationsexecutive actions are often uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry in which we operate. Because we store, process, and use data, some of which contains personal information,data, we are subject to complex and evolving federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, content, and other matters. Many of these laws, regulations, and regulationsexecutive actions are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in investigations, claims, changes to our business practices, increased cost of operations, and declines in user growth, retention, or engagement, any of which could seriously harm our business.

Several proposals have recently been adopted or are currently pending before, and we believe a number of investigations into other technology companies are currently being conducted by, federal, state, and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies that could significantly affect our business. The General Data Protection RegulationGDPR in the European Union, which will gowent into effect in May 2018, placed new data protection obligations and restrictions on May 25, 2018,organizations and may require us to further change our policies and procedures and, ifprocedures. If we are not compliant with GDPR requirements, we may be subject to significant fines and our business may be seriously harmharmed. In addition, the CCPA went into effect in January 2020 and the CPRA, which replaces the CCPA and goes into effect in January 2023, place additional requirements on the handling of personal data. The CCPA and CPRA also provide for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches, which may increase the likelihood and cost of data breach litigation. The potential effects of this or any other legislation, including any implementing regulations, are or may be far-reaching, uncertain, and evolving, and may require us, our business.partners, and advertisers to modify data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply. Other state, federal, and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies have enacted or may enact similar legislation regarding the handling of personal data, or conduct additional investigations into specific companies or the industry as a whole that could alter the existing regulatory environment in a manner that would be adverse to us. Changes in the European Union’s Electronic Communications Code, which became effective in December 2020, may result in the expanded applicability of the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive over parts of our services, requiring us to make changes to how we process and store certain types of communications data of users in the European Union, which could have a material impact on the availability of data we rely on to improve and personalize our products and features. The U.K.’s Age Appropriate Design Code, or AADC, which focuses on online safety and protection of children’s privacy online became effective in September 2021. Noncompliance with the AADC may result in audits by the U.K.’s Information Commissioner Office, or ICO, the regulatory body set up to uphold information rights, and other EU regulators as noncompliance with the AADC may indicate noncompliance with the GDPR. The ICO continues to engage with industry leaders to interpret and maintain compliance with the AADC. Furthermore, in December 2018, the Australian government passed the Assistance and Access Bill 2018 that provides Australian law enforcement authorities with mechanisms to make requests for electronic communication, even if the data is end-to-end encrypted like some of the data in Snapchat, which may create new obligations for companies providing communication services and make their data less secure.

Our financial condition and results of operations will fluctuate from quarter to quarter, which makes them difficult to predict.

Our quarterly results of operations have fluctuated in the past and will fluctuate in the future. Additionally, we have a limited operating history with the current scale of our business, which makes it difficult to forecast our future results. As a result, you should not rely on our past quarterly results of operations as indicators of future performance. You should take into account the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in rapidly evolving markets.market segments. Our financial condition and results of operations in any given quarter can be influenced by numerous factors, many of which we are unable to predict or are outside of our control, including:

If we are unable to continue to successfully grow our user base and further monetize our products, our business will suffer.

We have made, and are continuing to make, investments to enable users, partners, and advertisers to create compelling content and deliver advertising to our users. Existing and prospective Snapchat users and advertisers may not be successful in creating content that leads to and maintains user engagement. We are continuously seeking to balance the objectives of our users and advertisers with our desire to provide an optimal user experience. We do not seek to monetize all of our products nor do we focus our efforts on users with higher ARPU, and we may not be successful in achieving a balance that continues to attract and retain users and advertisers. We focus on growing engagement across our service, and from time to time our efforts

may reduce user activity with certain monetizable products in favor of other products we do not currently monetize. If we are not successful in our efforts to grow or effectively monetize our user base, or if we are unable to build and maintain good relations with our advertisers, our user growth and user engagement and our business may be seriously harmed. In addition, we may expend significant resources to launch new products that we are unable to monetize, which may seriously harm our business.

Additionally, we may not succeed in further monetizing Snapchat. We currently monetize Snapchat by displaying in the application advertisements that we sell and advertisements sold by our partners. As a result, our financial performance and ability to grow revenue could be seriously harmed if:

We cannot assure you that we will effectively manage our growth.

Our employee headcount and the scope and complexity of our business have increased significantly, with the number of full-time employees increasing from 1,859 as of December 31, 2016 to 3,069 as of December 31, 2017. We expect headcount growth to continue for the foreseeable future. The growth and expansion of our business, headcount, and products create significant challenges for our management, including managing multiple relationships with users, advertisers, partners, and other third parties, and constrain operational and financial resources. If our operations or the number of third-party

relationships continues to grow, our information-technology systems and our internal controls and procedures may not adequately support our operations. In addition, some members of our management do not have significant experience managing large global business operations, so our management may not be able to manage such growth effectively. To effectively manage our growth, we must continue to improve our operational, financial, and management processes and systems and effectively expand, train, and manage our employee base. However, the actions we take to achieve such improvements may not have the intended effect and may instead result in disruptions, employee turnover, declines in revenue, and other adverse effects.

As our organization continues to growmature and we are required to implement more complex organizational management structures, we may also find it increasingly difficult to maintain the benefits of our corporate culture, including our ability to quickly develop and launch new and innovative products. This could negatively affect our business performance and seriously harm our business.

Our costs are growing rapidly,may increase faster than our revenue, which could seriously harm our business or increase our losses.

Providing our products to our users is costly, and we expect our expenses, including those related to people and hosting, to grow in the future. This expense growth will continue as we broaden our user base, as users increase the number of connections and amount of content they consume and share, as we develop and implement new product features that require more computing infrastructure, and as we hire additional employees to support potential future growth.grow our business. Historically, our costs have increased each year due to these factors, and we expect to continue to incur increasing costs. Our costs are based on development and release of new products and the addition of users and may not be offset by a corresponding growth ofin our revenue. We will continue to invest in our global infrastructure to provide our products quickly and reliably to all users around the world, including in countries where we do not expect significant short-term monetization, if any. Our expenses may be greater than we anticipate, and our investments to make our business and our technical infrastructure more efficient may not succeed and may outpace monetization efforts. In addition, we expect to increase marketing, sales, and other operating expenses to grow and expand our operations and to remain competitive. Increases in our costs without a corresponding increase in our revenue would increase our losses and could seriously harm our business and financial performance.

Our business depends on our ability to maintain and scale our technology infrastructure. Any significant disruption to our service could damage our reputation, result in a potential loss of users and decrease in user engagement, and seriously harm our business.

Our reputation and ability to attract, retain, and serve users depends on the reliable performance of Snapchat and our underlying technology infrastructure. We have in the past experienced, and may in the future experience, interruptions in the availability or performance of our products and services from time to time. Our systems may not be adequately designed with the necessary reliability and redundancy to avoid performance delays or outages that could seriously harm our business. If Snapchat is unavailable when users attempt to access it, or if it does not load as quickly as they expect, users may not return to Snapchat as often in the future, or at all. As our user base and the volume and types of information shared on Snapchat continue to grow, we will need an increasing amount of technology infrastructure, including network capacity and computing power, to continue to satisfy our users’ needs. It is possible that we may fail to effectively scale and grow our technology infrastructure to accommodate these increased demands. In addition, our business is subject to interruptions, delays, and failures resulting from earthquakes, other natural disasters, terrorism, pandemics, and other catastrophic events. Global climate change could also result in natural disasters occurring more frequently or with more intense effects, which could cause business interruptions.

A substantial portionSubstantially all of our network infrastructure is provided by third parties.parties, including Google Cloud and AWS. Any disruption or failure in the services we receive from these providers could harm our ability to handle existing or increased traffic and could seriously harm our business. Any financial or other difficulties these providers face may seriously harm our business. And because we exercise little control over these providers, we are vulnerable to problems with the services they provide.

During the first quarter of 2021, we completed the initial phase of our new enterprise resource planning, or ERP, system implementation and migrated our general ledger, consolidation, and planning processes onto the new system. In connection with this implementation, we modified the design and documentation of our internal control processes and procedures relating to the new system. As part of this implementation, we may experience difficulties in managing our existing systems and processes, which could disrupt our operations, the management of our finances, and the reporting of our financial results, which in turn, may result in our inability to manage the growth of our business and to accurately forecast and report our results, each of which could seriously harm our business. 

Our business emphasizes rapid innovation and prioritizes long-term user engagement over short-term financial condition or results of operations. That strategy may yield results that sometimes don’t align with the market’s expectations. If that happens, our stock price may be negatively affected.

Our business is growing and becoming more complex, and our success depends on our ability to quickly develop and launch new and innovative products. We believe our culture fosters this goal. Our focus on complexityinnovations and quick reactions could result in unintended outcomes or decisions that are poorly received by our users, advertisers, or partners. We have made, and expect to continue to make, significant investments to develop and launch new products and services and we are not yet able to determine whethercannot assure you that users will purchase or use such new products and services in the future. We will also continue to attempt to find effective ways to show our community new and existing products and alert them to events, holidays, relevant content, and meaningful opportunities to connect with their friends. These methods may provide temporary increases in engagement that may ultimately fail to attract and retain users. Our culture also prioritizes our long-term user engagement over short-term financial condition or results of operations. We frequently make decisions that may reduce our short-term revenue or profitability if we believe that the decisions benefit the aggregate user

experience and will thereby improve our financial performance over the long term. For example, we monitor how advertising on Snapchat affects our users’ experiences to ensure we do not deliver too many advertisements to our users, and we may decide to decrease the number of advertisements to ensure our users’ satisfaction in the product. In addition, we improve Snapchat based on feedback provided by our users, advertisers, and partners. These decisions may not produce the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our user growth and engagement on our service or on certain platforms, our relationships with advertisers and partners, and our business could be seriously harmed.

If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished, and our business may be seriously harmed. If we need to license or acquire new intellectual property, we may incur substantial costs.

We aim to protect our confidential proprietary information, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements and invention assignment agreements with all our employees, consultants, advisors, and any third parties who access or contribute to our proprietary know-how, information, or technology. We also rely on trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, and domain-name-protection laws to protect our proprietary rights. In the United States and internationally, we have filed various applications to protect aspects of our intellectual property, and we currently hold a number of issued patents, trademarks, and

copyrights in multiple jurisdictions. In the future, we may acquire additional patents or patent portfolios, which could require significant cash expenditures. However, third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe our proprietary rights, third parties may challenge proprietary rights held by us, and pending and future trademark, copyright, and patent applications may not be approved. In addition, effectiveFurther, the laws of certain foreign countries do not provide the same level of protection of corporate proprietary information and assets such as intellectual property, protectiontrade secrets, know-how, and records as the laws of the United States. For instance, the legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection. As a result, we may not be availableexposed to material risks of theft of our proprietary information and other intellectual property, including technical data, manufacturing processes, data sets, or other sensitive information, and we may also encounter significant problems in every country in which we operateprotecting and defending our intellectual property or intend to operate our business.proprietary rights abroad. In any of these cases, we may be required to expend significant time and expense to prevent infringement or to enforce our rights. Although we have taken measures to protect our proprietary rights, there can be no assurance that others will not offer products or concepts that are substantially similar to ours and compete with our business. If we are unable to protect our proprietary rights or prevent unauthorized use or appropriation by third parties, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished, and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our service and methods of operations. Any of these events could seriously harm our business.

In addition, we regularly contributehave contributed software source code under open-source licenses, and have made other technology we developed available under other open licenses, and we include open-source software in our products. From time to time, we may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open-source software or derivative works that we have developed using such software, which could include our proprietary source code, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open-source license. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, seek licenses from third parties to continue offering our products for certain uses, or cease offering the products associated with such software unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid infringement, which may be very costly. For example, in January 2017, Vaporstream, Inc. filed a complaint against us in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint, which seeks injunctive relief among other remedies, alleges that certain Snapchat features infringe several Vaporstream patents. While we believe their claims are meritless, an unfavorable outcome in this litigation could seriously harm our business. If we are unable to protect our proprietary rights or prevent unauthorized use or appropriation by third parties, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished, and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our service and methods of operations. Any of these events could seriously harm our business.

If our users do not continue to contribute content or their contributions are not perceived as valuable to other users, we may experience a decline in user growth, retention, and engagement on Snapchat, which could result in the loss of advertisers and revenue.

Our success depends on our ability to provide Snapchat users with engaging content, which in part depends on the content contributed by our users. If users, including influential users such as world leaders, government officials, celebrities, athletes, journalists, sports teams, media outlets, and brands, do not continue to contribute engaging content to Snapchat, our user growth, retention, and engagement may decline. That, in turn, may impair our ability to maintain good relationships with our advertisers or attract new advertisers, which may seriously harm our business.

Foreign government initiatives to restrict access to Snapchat in their countriesand restrictions could seriously harm our business.

Foreign data protection, privacy, consumer protection, content regulation, and other laws and regulations are often more restrictive than those in the United States. Foreign governments may censor Snapchat in their countries, restrict access to Snapchat from their countries entirely, impose laws on us that require data localization, or impose other restrictions that may affect their citizens’ ability to access Snapchat for an extended period of time or even indefinitely. If foreign governments think we are violating theirindefinitely, require data localization, or impose other laws or regulations that we cannot comply with, would be difficult for us to comply with, or would require us to rebuild our products or the infrastructure for our products. Such restrictions may also be implemented or lifted selectively to target or benefit other reasons, theycompanies or products, which may seek to restrictresult in sudden or unexpected fluctuations in competition in regions where we operate. Any restriction on access to Snapchat whichdue to foreign government actions or initiatives, or any withdrawal by us from certain countries because of such actions or initiatives, or any increased competition due to actions and initiatives of foreign governments would giveadversely affect our DAUs, including by giving our competitors an opportunity to penetrate geographic markets that we cannot access or to which they previously did not have access. As a result, our user growth, retention, and engagement may be seriously harmed, and we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenue as anticipated and our business could be seriously harmed. For example, access to Google, which currently powers our infrastructure, is restricted in China, and we do not know if we will be able to enter the market in a manner acceptable to the Chinese government.

Our users may increasingly engage directly with our partners and advertisers instead of through Snapchat, which may negatively affect our advertising revenue and seriously harm our business.

We allow partners to display their advertisements on Snapchat. Using our products, some partners and advertisers not only can interact directly with our users but can also direct our users to content with third-party websites and products and downloads of third-party applications. In addition, our users may generate content by using Snapchat features, but then share, use, or post it on a different platform. The more our users engage with third-party websites and applications, the partner’s website directly. When users visit a partner’s website,less engagement we do not deliver advertisements to these websites. So, if our partners’ websites draw users awaymay get from Snapchat,them, which would adversely affect the sort of user activity that generates advertising opportunities may decline, whichrevenue we could negatively affect our advertising revenue.earn from them. Although we believe that Snapchat reaps significant long-term benefits from increased user engagement onwith content on Snapchat provided by our partners, these benefits may not offset the possible loss of advertising revenue, in which case our business could be seriously harmed.

If events occur that damage our reputation and brand our ability to expand our user base, advertisers, and partners may be impaired, andor reputation, our business may be seriously harmed.

We have developed a brand that we believe has contributed to our success. We also believe that maintaining and enhancing our brand is critical to expanding our user base, advertisers, and partners. Because many of our users join Snapchat on the invitation or recommendation of a friend or family member, one of our primary focuses is on ensuring that our users continue to view Snapchat and our brand favorably so that these referrals continue. Maintaining and enhancing our brand will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide useful, novel, fun, reliable, trustworthy, and innovative products, which we may not do successfully. We may introduce new products, make changes to existing products and services, or require our users to agree to new terms of service related to new and existing products that users do not like, which may negatively affect our brand in the short term, long term, or both. Additionally, our partners’ actions may affect our brand if users do not appreciate what those partners do on Snapchat. In the past, we have experienced, and we expect that in the future we will continue to experience, media, legislative, and regulatory scrutiny of our decisions regarding user privacy or other issues, which may seriously harm our reputation and brand. We may also fail to adequately support the needs of our users, advertisers, or partners, which could erode confidence in our brand. Maintaining and enhancing our brand may require us to make substantial investments and these investments may not be successful. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business may be seriously harmed.

Unfavorable media coverage could seriously harm our business.

We and our founders also receive a high degree of media coverage globally. In the past, we have experienced, and we expect that we will continue to experience, media, legislative, and regulatory scrutiny. Unfavorable publicity regarding us, for example, our privacy practices, product changes, product quality, litigation, employee matters, or regulatory activity, or regarding the actions of our founders, our partners, or our users, or other companies in our industry, could seriously harm our reputation. Such negativereputation and brand. Negative publicity and scrutiny could also adversely affect the size, demographics, engagement, and loyalty of our user base and result in decreased revenue, fewer app installs (or increased app un-installs), or slowerdeclining user base or growth rates, any of which could seriously harm our business.

Expanding and operating in international markets requires significant resources and management attention. If we are not successful in expanding and operating our business in international markets, we may incur significant costs, damage our brand, or need to lay off employeesteam members in those markets, any of which may seriously harm our reputation and business.

We have rapidly expanded to new international markets including areasand are growing our operations in existing international markets, which may have very different cultures and commercial, legal, and regulatory systems than where we do not yet understand the full scope of commerce and culture.predominately operate. In connection with this rapidour international expansion and growth, we have also hired new employeesteam members in many of these markets. This rapidinternational expansion may:

These issues may eventually lead to turnover or layoffs of employeesteam members in these markets and may harm our ability to grow our business in these markets.

We have spent and anticipate spending substantial funds in connection with the tax liabilities on the settlement of RSUs. The manner in which we fund these tax liabilities may have an adverse effect In addition, scaling our business to international markets imposes complexity on our business, and requires additional financial, condition.legal, and management resources. We may not be able to manage growth and expansion effectively, which could damage our brand, result in significant costs, and seriously harm our business.

Given the large number of restricted stock units, or RSUs, that initially settled in connection with our IPO,Additionally, as we expended approximately $206.6 million in the three months ended March 31, 2017 to satisfy tax withholding and remittance obligations. To settle these RSUs, we net-settled the awards by delivering an aggregate of approximately 14.6 million shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock to RSU holders and withholding an aggregate of approximately 12.1 million shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock. For the year ended December 31, 2017, we expended approximately $394.2 million to satisfy tax withholding and remittance obligations. We withheld and remitted income taxes at applicable statutory rates based on the then-current value of the underlying shares.

To fund the withholding and remittance obligations in the future, we may sell equity securities on our behalf or on behalf of our employees near the applicable settlement dates in an amount that is substantially equivalent toincrease the number of shares of common stock thatour team members internationally, we withholdare exposed to political, social, and economic instability in connection with these settlements, such that the newly issued shares should not be dilutive. However,additional countries and regions. For example, we have team members in Ukraine, and any political instability in the event that we issue equity securities, we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully match the proceeds to the amount of this tax liability. In addition, any such equity financing could result in a decline inregion may disrupt our stock price. If we elect not to fully fund tax withholdingoperations and remittance obligations through the issuance of equity or we are unable to complete such an offering due to market conditions or otherwise, we may choose to borrow funds undernegatively impact our five-year senior unsecured revolving credit facility, or our Credit Facility, use a substantial portion of our existing cash, or rely on a combination of these alternatives. In the event that we elect to satisfy tax withholding and remittance obligations in whole or in part by drawing on our Credit Facility, our interest expense and principal repayment requirements could increase significantly, which could seriously harm our business.

Our products are highly technical and may contain undetected software bugs or hardware errors, which could manifest in ways that could seriously harm our reputation and our business.

Our products are highly technical and complex. Snapchat, and Spectacles, or any other products we may introduce in the future, may contain undetected software bugs, hardware errors, and other vulnerabilities. These bugs and errors can manifest in any number of ways in our products, including through diminished performance, security vulnerabilities, malfunctions, or even permanently disabled products. We have a practice of rapidly updating our products and some errors in our products may be discovered only after a product has been released or shipped and used by users, and may in some cases be detected only under certain circumstances or after extended use. Spectacles, as an eyewear product, is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, and may malfunction in a way that physically harmsresults in physical harm to a user or others around the user. We offer a limited one-year warranty in the United States and a limited two-year warranty in Europe, and any such defects discovered in our products after commercial release could result in a loss of sales and users, which could seriously harm our business. Any errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities discovered in our code after release could damage our reputation, drive away users, lower revenue, and expose us to damages claims, any of which could seriously harm our business.

We could also face claims for product liability, tort, or breach of warranty. In addition, our product contracts with users contain provisions relating to warranty disclaimers and liability limitations, which may not be upheld. Defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, is costly and may divert management’s attention and seriously harm our reputation and our business. In addition, if our liability insurance coverage proves inadequate or future coverage is unavailable on acceptable terms or at all, our business could be seriously harmed.

As our business expands, weWe have been, are currently, and may offer credit to our partners to stay competitive, and as a result we may be exposed to credit risk of some of our partners, which may seriously harm our business.

As our business continues to grow and expand, we may decide to engage in business with some of our partners on an open credit basis. While we may monitor individual partner payment capability when we grant open credit arrangements and maintain allowances we believe are adequate to cover exposure for doubtful accounts, we cannot assure investors these programs will be effective in managing our credit risks in the future especially as we expand our business internationally and engage with partners that we may not be familiar with. If we are unable to adequately control these risks, our business could be seriously harmed.

We may be subject to regulatory inquiries, investigations, and proceedings in the future, which could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a way that could seriously harm our business.

It is possible that aWe have been, are currently, and may in the future be subject to investigations and inquiries from government entities. These investigations and inquiries, and our compliance with any associated regulatory inquiry might forceorders or consent decrees, may require us to change our policies or practices. And were wepractices, subject us to violate existing or future regulatory orders or consent decrees, we might incur substantial monetary fines andor other penalties that could seriouslyor sanctions, result in increased operating costs, divert management’s attention, harm our business. In addition, it is possible that future orders issued by, or enforcement actions initiated by, regulatory authorities could causereputation, and require us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a way thatsignificant legal and other expenses, any of which could seriously harm our business.

For example, in December 2014, the FTC resolved an investigation into some of our early practices by issuing a final order. That order requires, among other things, that we establish a robust privacy program to govern how we treat user data. During the 20-year term of the order, we must complete bi-annual independent privacy audits. In addition, in June 2014, we entered into a 10-year assurance of discontinuance with the Attorney General of Maryland implementing similar practices, including measures to prevent minors under the age of 13 from creating accounts and providing annual compliance reports. Violating existing or future regulatory orders or consent decrees could subject us to substantial monetary fines and other penalties that could seriously harm our business. Similarly, we may be subject to additional general inquiries from time to time, which may seriously harm our business.

We are currently, and expect to be in the future, party to patent lawsuits and other intellectual property claims that are expensive and time-consuming. If resolved adversely, these lawsuits and claims could seriously harm our business.

Companies in the mobile, camera, communication, media, internet, and other technology-related industries own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights, and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property or other rights. In addition, various “non-practicing entities” and other entities that own patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights often attempt to aggressively assert their rights to extract value from technology companies. Furthermore, from time to time we may introduce new products or make other business changes, including in areas where we currently do not compete, which could increase our exposure to patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other intellectual property rights claims from competitors and non-practicing entities. From time to time, we receive letters from patent holders alleging that some of our products infringe their patent rights and from trademark holders alleging infringement of their trademark rights. We have been subject to, litigation with respect to third-party patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property and we expect to continue to be subject to, claims and legal proceedings from holders of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other intellectual property litigation.rights alleging that some of our products or content infringe their rights. For example, in January 2020, You Map, Inc. filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against us, our subsidiary Zenly, and certain of our respective employees alleging that we misappropriated various trade secrets regarding map technology used in Snapchat’s and Zenly’s map products and that the Snapchat and Zenly applications infringe a You Map patent. While we believe we have meritorious defenses to these claims, an unfavorable outcome in these and other similar lawsuits could seriously harm our business. If these or other matters continue in the future or we need to enter into licensing arrangements, which may not be available to us or on terms favorable to us, it may increase our costs and decrease the value of our products, and our business could be seriously harmed.

We rely on a variety of statutory and common-law frameworks for the content we host and provide our users, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, the Communications Decency Act, or CDA, and the fair-use doctrine. The DMCA limits, but does not necessarily eliminate, our potential liability for caching, hosting, listing, or linking to third-party content that may include materials that infringe copyrights or other rights. The CDA further limits our potential liability for content uploaded onto Snapchat by third parties. And the fair-use doctrine (and related doctrines in other countries) limits our potential liability for featuring third-party intellectual property content produced by us for purposes such as reporting, commentary, and parody. However, each of these statutes and doctrines is subject to uncertain judicial interpretation and regulatory and legislative amendments. For example, there are currently efforts underwaythe U.S. Congress amended the CDA in Congress to amend the CDA2018 in ways that could expose some Internet platforms to an increased risk of litigation. In addition, the U.S. Congress and the Executive branch have proposed further changes or amendments each year since 2019 including, among other things, proposals that would narrow the CDA immunity, expand government enforcement power relating to content moderation concerns, or repeal the CDA altogether. Some U.S. states have also enacted or proposed

legislation that would undercut, or conflict with, the CDA’s protections. Although such state laws have been or can be expected to be challenged in court, if these laws were upheld or if additional similar laws or the changes or amendments to the CDA proposed by the U.S. Congress and the Executive branch were enacted, such changes may decrease the protections provided by the CDA and expose us to lawsuits, penalties, and additional compliance obligations. Moreover, some of these statutes and doctrines that we rely on provide protection only or primarily in the United States. If the rules around these doctrines change, if international jurisdictions refuse to apply similar protections, or if a court were to disagree with our application of those rules to our service, we could incur liability or be required to make significant changes to our products, business practices, or operations, and our business could be seriously harmed.

From time to time, we are involved in class-action lawsuits and other litigation matters that are expensive and time-consuming. If resolved adversely, lawsuitstime-consuming and other litigation matters could seriously harm our business.

We are involved in numerous lawsuits, including putative class-action lawsuits brought by users manyand investors, some of which may claim statutory damages. We anticipate that we will continue to be a target for lawsuits in the future. Because we have millions of users, the plaintiffs in class-action cases filedlawsuits against us that are purportedly filed by or on behalf of users typically claim enormous monetary damages in the aggregate even if the alleged per-user harm is small or non-existent. For example, beginning on May 16, 2017,in November 2020, a putative class filed an action against us in Illinois, alleging that we certainviolated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, or BIPA, with respect to many Illinois users of our officersSnapchat and directors,that we are liable to those users for statutory damages. We compelled arbitration, which the court granted, dismissing the case and ordering the underwriters of our IPO were named as defendantsparties to arbitrate the matter; that ruling compelling arbitration is currently being appealed. Some plaintiffs’ attorneys have also indicated a desire to initiate arbitrations against us, arguing that we violated BIPA, in securities class actions purportedly broughtsome cases on behalf of purchaserslarge numbers of Illinois users. We believe we have meritorious defenses to these lawsuits and arbitrations, but an unfavorable outcome in these lawsuits or arbitrations could seriously harm our Class A common stock.business. Similarly, because we have a large number of stockholders, class-action lawsuits on securities theories typically claim enormous monetary damages in the aggregate even if the alleged loss per stockholder is small. Any litigation to which we are a party may result in an onerous or unfavorable judgment that maymight not be reversed on appeal, or we may decide to settle lawsuits on similarly unfavorableadverse terms. Any such negative outcome could result in payments of substantial monetary damages or fines, or changes to our products or business practices, and accordingly our business could be seriously harmed. Although the results of lawsuits and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, management does not believe that the final outcome of those matters that we currently face will seriously harm our business. However,Even if the outcome of any such litigation or claim is favorable, defending these claimsthem is costly and can impose a significant burden on management and employees, and weemployees. We may also receive unfavorable preliminary, interim, or final rulings in the course of litigation, whichlitigation. For example, in November 2021, we, and certain of our officers, were named as defendants in a securities class action lawsuit in federal court purportedly brought on behalf of purchasers of our Class A common stock. The lawsuit alleges that we and certain of our officers made false or misleading statements and omissions concerning the impact that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework would have on our business. We believe we have meritorious defenses to this lawsuit, but an unfavorable outcome could seriously harm our business.

We do not have manufacturing capabilities and depend on a single contract manufacturer. If we encounter problems with this contract manufacturer or if the manufacturing process stops or is delayed for any reason, we may not deliver our hardware products, such as Spectacles, to our customers on time, which may seriously harm our business.

We have limited manufacturing experience for our only physical product, Spectacles, and we do not have any internal manufacturing capabilities. Instead, we rely on one contract manufacturer to build Spectacles. Our contract manufacturer is vulnerable to capacity constraints and reduced component availability, and our control over delivery schedules, manufacturing yields, and costs, particularly when components are in short supply, or if we introduce a new product or feature, is limited. In addition, we have limited control over our manufacturer’s quality systems and controls, and therefore must rely on our manufacturer to manufacture our products to our quality and performance standards and specifications. Delays, component shortages, including custom components that are manufactured for us at our direction, and other manufacturing and supply problems could impair the distribution of our products and ultimately our brand. Furthermore, any adverse change in our contract manufacturer’s financial or business condition or our relationship with the contract manufacturer could disrupt our ability to supply our products to our retailers and distributors. If we are required to change our

contract manufacturer or assume internal manufacturing operations, we may lose revenue, incur increased costs, and damage our reputation and brand. Qualifying a new contract manufacturer and commencing production is expensive and time-consuming. In addition, if we experience increased demand for our products, we may need to increase our component purchases, contract-manufacturing capacity, and internal test and quality functions. The inability of our contract manufacturers to provide us with adequate supplies of high-quality products could delay our order fulfillment, and may require us to change the design of our products to meet this increased demand. Any redesign would require us to re-qualify our products with any applicable regulatory bodies, which would be costly and time-consuming. This may lead to unsatisfied customers and users and increase costs to us, which could seriously harm our business.

Components used in our products may fail as a result of a manufacturing, design, or other defect over which we have no control, and render our devices inoperable.

We rely on third-party component suppliers to provide some of the functionalities needed to operate and use our products, such as Spectacles. Any errors or defects in that third-party technology could result in errors in our products that could seriously harm our business. If these components have a manufacturing, design, or other defect, they can cause our products to fail and render them permanently inoperable. For example, the typical means by which our Spectacles product connects to mobile devices is by way of a Bluetooth transceiver located in the Spectacles product. If the Bluetooth transceiver in our Spectacles product were to fail, it would not be able to connect to a user’s mobile device and Spectacles would not be able to deliver any content to the mobile device and the Snapchat application. As a result, we would have to replace these products at our sole cost and expense. Should we have a widespread problem of this kind, the reputational damage and the cost of replacing these products could seriously harm our business.

The FDA and other state and foreign regulatory agencies regulate Spectacles. We may develop future products that are regulated as medical devices by the FDA. Government authorities, primarily the FDA and corresponding regulatory agencies, regulate the medical device industry. Unless there is an exemption, we must obtain regulatory approval from the FDA and corresponding agencies before we can market or sell a new regulated product or make a significant modification to an existing product. Obtaining regulatory clearances to market a medical device can be costly and time-consuming, and we may not be able to obtain these clearances or approvals on a timely basis, or at all, for future products. Any delay in, or failure to receive or maintain, clearance or approval for any medical device products under development could prevent us from launching new products. We could seriously harm our business and the ability to sell our products if we experience any product problems requiring FDA reporting, if we fail to comply with applicable FDA and other state or foreign agency regulations, or if we are subject to enforcement actions such as fines, civil penalties, injunctions, product recalls, or failure to obtain FDA or other regulatory clearances or approvals.

We may face inventory risk with respect to our Spectacles products.

We have been and may continue to be exposed to inventory risks related to Spectacles as a result of rapid changes in product cycles and pricing, defective merchandise, changes in consumer demand and consumer spending patterns, changes in consumer tastes with respect to Spectacles products, and other factors. We try to accurately predict these trends and avoid overstocking or understocking inventory. Demand for products, however, can change significantly between the time inventory or components are ordered and the date of sale. The acquisition of certain types of inventory or components may require significant lead-time and prepayment and they may not be returnable. Failure to manage our inventory, supplier commitments, or customer expectations could seriously harm our business.

Our offices are dispersed in various cities, and we do not have a designated headquarters office, which may negatively affect employee morale and could seriously harm our business.

We have many offices, both domestic and abroad, with our principal offices being located in the Los Angeles area. But we do not have one designated headquarters office; we instead have many office buildings that are dispersed throughout the area. This diffuse structure may prevent us from fostering positive employee morale and encouraging social interaction among our employees and different business units. Moreover, because our office buildings are dispersed throughout the area, we may be unable to adequately oversee employees and business functions. If we cannot compensate for these and other issues caused by this geographically dispersed office structure, we may lose employees, which could seriously harm our business.

We may face lawsuits, or incur liability, or need to seek licenses based on information retrieved from or transmitted over the internet and then posted to Snapchat.our products.

We have faced, currently face, and will continue to face claims relating to information that is published or made available on our products, including Snapchat. In particular, the nature of our business exposes us to claims related to defamation, intellectual property rights, rights of publicity and privacy, and personal injury torts. For example, we do not monitor or edit the vast majority of content that appears on Snapchat.is communicated through Snapchat, and such content may expose us to lawsuits. This risk is enhanced in certain jurisdictions outside the United States where our protection from liability for third-party actions may be unclear or evolving and where we may be less protected under local laws than we are in the United States. For example, in April 2019, the European Union passed a directive expanding online platform liability for copyright infringement and regulating certain uses of news content online, which member states were required to implement by June 2021. In addition, legislation in Germany may impose significant fines for failure to comply with certain content removal and disclosure obligations. Numerous other countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America are considering or have implemented similar legislation imposing penalties for failure to remove certain types of content or follow certain processes. In the United States, there have been various Congressional and Executive branch efforts to remove or restrict the scope of the protections available to online platforms under Section 230 of the CDA. For example, the CDA was amended in 2018, and the U.S. Congress and the Executive branch have proposed further changes or amendments each year since 2019, including among other things proposals that would narrow CDA immunity, expand government enforcement power relating to content moderation concerns, or repeal the CDA altogether. Such changes could decrease or change our current protections from liability for third-party content in the United States could decrease or change.States. We could incur significant costs investigating and defending such claims and, if we are found liable, significant damages.damages, or license costs. We could also face fines or orders restricting or blocking our services in particular geographies as a result of content hosted on our services. For example, recently enacted legislation in Germany may impose significant fines for failure to comply with certain content removal and disclosure obligations. If any of these events occur, we may incur significant costs or be required to make significant changes to our products, business practices, or operations and our business could be seriously harmed.

We plan to continue expanding our international operations abroad where we have limited operating experience and may be subject to increased business and economic risks that could seriously harm our business.

We plan to continue expanding our business operations abroad and translating our products into other languages. Snapchat is currently available in more than 2040 languages, and we have offices in more than ten15 countries. We plan to enter new international markets and expand our operations in existing international markets, where we have limited or no experience in marketing, selling, and deploying our products.products and advertisements. Our limited experience and infrastructure in such markets, or the lack of a critical mass of users in such markets, may make it more difficult for us to effectively monetize any increase in DAUs in those markets, and may increase our costs without a corresponding increase in revenue. If we fail to deploy or manage our operations in international markets successfully, our business may suffer. In the future, as our international operations increase, or more of our expenses are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, our operating results may be more greatly affected by fluctuations in the exchange rates of the currencies in which we do business. In addition, as our international operations and sales continue to grow, we are subject to a variety of risks inherent in doing business internationally, including:

If we are unable to expand internationally and manage the complexity of our global operations successfully, our business could be seriously harmed.

New legislation that would change U.S. or foreign taxation of international business activities or other tax-reform policies, including the imposition of tax based on gross income, could seriously harm our business.

Reforming the taxation of international businesses has been a priority for politicians, and a wide variety of potential changes have been proposed. Some proposals, several of which have been enacted, impose incremental taxes on gross revenue, regardless of profitability. Due to the large and expanding scale of our international business activities, any changes in the taxation of such activities may increase our worldwide effective tax rate and the amount of taxes we pay and seriously harm our business.

For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the Tax Act, was enacted on December 22, 2017 and significantly reforms the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code. The Tax Act lowers U.S. federal corporate income tax rates, changes the utilization of future net operating loss carryforwards, allows for the expensing of certain capital expenditures, and puts into effect sweeping changes to U.S. taxation of international business activities. As a result, our net U.S. deferred tax assets and corresponding valuation allowances will be revalued at the new U.S. corporate rate. We continue to examine the impact this tax reform legislation may have on our business. The impact of this tax reform on us and on holders of our common stock is uncertain and could seriously harm our business.

Exposure to United Kingdom political developments, including the outcomeeffect of the referendum on membership inits withdrawal from the European Union, could be costly and difficult to comply with and could seriously harm our business.

In June 2016,We have based a referendum was passedsignificant portion of our European operations in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, commonly referred to as “Brexit.” This decision creates an uncertain political and economic environment in the United Kingdom and other European Union countries, even though the formal process for leaving the European Union may take years to complete. This formal process began in March 2017, when the United Kingdom served notice to the European Council under Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon. We have licensed a portion of our intellectual property to one of our United Kingdom subsidiariessubsidiaries. These operations continue to face risks and have based a significant portionpotential disruptions related to the withdrawal of our non-U.S. operations in the United Kingdom. TheKingdom from the European Union, commonly referred to as “Brexit.” Although the United Kingdom and the European Union have entered into a trade and cooperation agreement, the long-term nature of the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Union is unclearremains unclear. For example, Brexit could lead to potentially divergent laws and there is considerable uncertainty when any relationship willregulations, such as with respect to data protection and data transfer laws, that could be agreed costly

and implemented. The political and economic instability created by Brexit has caused and maydifficult to comply with. While we continue to cause significant volatility in global financial markets and uncertainty regardingmonitor these developments, the regulation of data protection in the United Kingdom. In particular, it is unclear whether the United Kingdom will enact data protection laws or regulations designed to be consistent with the pending EU General Data Protection Regulation and how data transfers to and from the United Kingdom will be regulated. Brexit could also have thefull effect of disrupting the free movement of goods, services,Brexit on our operations is uncertain and peopleour business could be harmed by trade disputes or political differences between the United Kingdom and the European Union and elsewhere. The full effect of Brexit is uncertain and depends on any agreementsin the United Kingdom may make to retain access to European Union markets. Consequently, no assurance can be given about the impact of the outcome and our business, including operational and tax policies, may be seriously harmed or require reassessment if our European operations or presence become a significant part of our business.future.

We plan to continue to make acquisitions and strategic investments in privately heldother companies, which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute our stockholders, and seriously harm our business.

As part of our business strategy, we have made and intend to make acquisitions to add specialized employeesteam members and complementary companies, products, and technologies, as well as investments in privately heldpublic and private companies in furtherance of our strategic objectives. Our ability to acquire and successfully integrate larger or more complex companies, products, and technologies is unproven.unproven. In the future, we may not be able to find other suitable acquisition or investment candidates, and we may not be able to complete acquisitions or investments on favorable terms, if at all. Our previous and future acquisitions and investments may not achieve our goals, and any future acquisitions or investments we complete could be viewed negatively by users, advertisers, partners, or investors. In addition, if we fail to successfully close transactions, or integrate new teams, or integrate the products and technologies associated with these acquisitions into our company, our business could be seriously harmed. Any integration process may require significant time and resources, and we may not be able to manage the process successfully. We may not successfully evaluate or use the acquired products, technology, and personnel, or accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition or investment transaction, including accounting charges. We may also incur unanticipated liabilities that we assume as a result of acquiring companies. We may have to pay cash, incur debt, or issue equity securities to pay for any acquisition or investment, any of which could seriously harm our business. Selling or issuing equity to finance or carry out any such acquisition or investment would also dilute our existing stockholders. Incurring debt would increase our fixed obligations and could also include covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to manage our operations.

In addition, on average, it has historically taken us approximately one yeargenerally takes several months after the closing of an acquisition to finalize the purchase price allocation. Therefore, it is possible that our valuation of an acquisition may change and result in unanticipated write-offs or charges, impairment of our goodwill, or a material change to the fair value of the assets and liabilities associated with a particular acquisition, any of which could seriously harm our business.

The strategic investments we make in public and private companies around the world range from early-stage companies still defining their strategic direction to mature companies with established revenue streams and business models. Many of the instruments in which we invest are non-marketable and illiquid at the time of our initial investment, and we are not always able to achieve a return in a timely fashion, if at all. Our ability to realize a return on our investment in a private company, if any, is typically dependent on the company participating in a liquidity event, such as a public offering or acquisition. To the extent any of the companies in which we invest are not successful, which can include failures to achieve business objectives as well as bankruptcy, we could recognize an impairment or lose all or part of our investment.

Our acquisition and investment strategy may not succeed if we are unable to remain attractive to target companies or expeditiously close transactions. Issuing shares of Class A common stock to fund an acquisition or investment would cause economic dilution to existing stockholders but not voting dilution. IfFor example, if we develop a reputation for being a difficult acquirer or having an unfavorable work environment, or target companies view our non-voting Class A common stock unfavorably, we may be unable to source and close acquisition targets. In addition, members of the U.S. administration and Congress have proposed new legislation that could limit, hinder, or delay the acquisition process and target opportunities. If we are unable to consummate key acquisition transactions essential to our corporate strategy, it may limit our ability to grow or compete effectively and our business may be seriously harmed.

If our goodwill or intangible assets become impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings, which could seriously harm our business.

Under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, we review our intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. Goodwill is required to be tested for impairment at least annually. As of December 31, 2021, we had recorded a total of $1.9 billion of goodwill and intangible assets, net related to our acquisitions. An adverse change in market conditions, particularly if such change has the effect of changing one of our critical assumptions or estimates, could result in a change to the estimation of fair value that could result in an impairment charge to our goodwill or intangible assets. Any such material charges may seriously harm our business.

We have spent and may continue to spend substantial funds in connection with the tax liabilities on the settlement of equity awards. The manner in which we fund these tax liabilities may cause us to spend substantial funds or dilute stockholders, either of which may have an adverse effect on our financial condition.

When our employee equity awards vest, we withhold taxes and remit them to relevant taxing authorities on behalf of team members. To fund the withholding and remittance obligations for equity awards, we have either used our existing cash or sold a portion of vested equity awards on behalf of our team members near the applicable settlement dates in an amount that is substantially equivalent to the number of shares of common stock that we would withhold in connection with these settlements. In the future, we may also sell equity on our behalf and use the proceeds to fund the withholding and remittance obligations for equity awards. Any of these methods may have an adverse effect on our financial condition.

If we sell shares on behalf of our team members, although those newly issued shares should not be dilutive, such sales to the market could result in a decline to our stock price. If we use our existing cash, or if our cash reserves are not sufficient, we may choose to issue equity securities or borrow funds under our revolving credit facility. In such an event, we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully match the proceeds of any such equity financing to the then applicable tax liability, and any such equity financing could result in a decline in our stock price and be dilutive to existing stockholders. If we elect to satisfy tax withholding and remittance obligations in whole or in part by drawing on our revolving credit facility, our interest expense and principal repayment requirements could increase significantly, which could seriously harm our business.

There are numerous risks associated with our internal and contract manufacturing of our physical products and components. If we encounter problems with either our internal or contract manufacturing, we may not deliver our products within specifications or on time, which may seriously harm our business.

Manufacturing processes are highly complex, require advanced and costly equipment, and must be continuously modified to improve yields and performance. We rely on suppliers and contract manufacturers in connection with the production of our own physical products and components. We and our contract manufacturers are all vulnerable to capacity constraints and reduced component availability, and have limited control over delivery schedules, manufacturing yields, and costs, particularly when components are in short supply, or if we introduce a new product or feature. In addition, we have limited control over our suppliers’ and manufacturers’ quality systems and controls, and therefore must rely on them to meet our quality and performance standards and specifications. Delays, component shortages, including custom components that are manufactured for us at our direction, global trade conditions and agreements, and other manufacturing and supply problems could impair the distribution of our products and ultimately our brand. For example, the United States has threatened tougher trade terms with China and other countries, leading to the imposition, or potential future imposition, of substantially higher U.S. Section 301 tariffs on certain imports from China, which may adversely affect our products and seriously harm our business.

Furthermore, any adverse change in our suppliers’ or contract manufacturers’ financial or business condition or our relationship with them could disrupt our ability to supply our products. If we change our suppliers or contract manufacturers, or shift to more internal manufacturing operations, we may lose revenue, incur increased costs, and damage our reputation and brand. Qualifying and commencing operations with a new supplier or contract manufacturer is expensive and time-consuming. In addition, if we experience increased demand for our products, we may need to increase our material or component purchases, internal or contract-manufacturing capacity, and internal test and quality functions. The inability of our suppliers or contract manufacturers to provide us with adequate high-quality materials and products could delay our order fulfillment, and may require us to change the design of our products to meet this increased demand. Any redesign may require us to re-qualify our products with any applicable regulatory bodies or customers, which would be costly and time-consuming. This may lead to unsatisfied customers and users and increase costs to us, which could seriously harm our business. As we increase or acquire additional manufacturing capacity, we are subject to many complex and evolving environmental, health, and safety laws, regulations, and rules in each jurisdiction in which we operate. If we fail to comply with any such laws and regulations, then we could incur regulatory penalties, fines, and legal liabilities, suspension of production, significant compliance requirements, alteration of our manufacturing processes, or restrictions on our ability to modify or expand our facilities, any of which could seriously harm our business.

In addition, any errors or defects in any parts or technology incorporated into our products could result in product failures that could seriously harm our business. Further, any defect in manufacturing, design, or other could cause our products to fail or render them permanently inoperable. For example, the typical means by which our Spectacles product connects to mobile devices is by way of a Bluetooth transceiver located in the Spectacles product. If the Bluetooth transceiver in our Spectacles product were to fail, it would not be able to connect to a user’s mobile device and Spectacles would not be able to deliver any content to the mobile device and the Snapchat application. As a result, we may have to replace these products at our sole cost and expense, face litigation, or be subject to other liabilities. Should we have a widespread problem of this kind, the reputational damage and the cost of replacing these products, or other liabilities, could seriously harm our business.

Some of our products are in regulated industries. Clearances to market regulated products can be costly and time-consuming, and we may not be able to obtain these clearances or approvals on a timely basis, or at all, for future products.

The FDA and other state and foreign regulatory agencies regulate Spectacles. We may develop future products that are regulated as medical devices by the FDA or regulated by other governmental agencies. Government authorities, primarily the FDA and corresponding regulatory agencies, regulate the medical device industry. Unless there is an exemption, we must obtain regulatory approval from the FDA and corresponding agencies, or other applicable governmental authorities, before we can market or sell a new regulated product or make a significant modification to an existing product. Obtaining regulatory clearances to market a medical device or other regulated products can be costly and time-consuming, and we may not be able to obtain these clearances or approvals on a timely basis, or at all, for future products. Any delay in, or failure to receive or maintain, clearance or approval for any products under development could prevent us from launching new products. We could seriously harm our business and the ability to sell our products if we experience any product problems requiring reporting to governmental authorities, if we fail to comply with applicable state or foreign agency regulations, or if we are subject to enforcement actions such as fines, civil penalties, injunctions, product recalls, or failure to obtain regulatory clearances or approvals.

We have faced inventory risk with respect to our physical products, such as Spectacles.

We have been and may in the future be exposed to inventory risks related to our physical products, such as Spectacles, as a result of rapid changes in product cycles and pricing, defective merchandise, changes in consumer demand and consumer spending patterns, changes in consumer tastes with respect to our products, and other factors. We try to accurately predict these trends and avoid overstocking or understocking inventory. Demand for products, however, can change significantly between the time inventory or components are ordered and the date of sale. The acquisition of certain types of inventory or components may require significant lead-time and prepayment and they may not be returnable. Failure to manage our inventory, supplier commitments, or customer expectations could seriously harm our business.

Risks Related to Credit and Financing

We have offered and may continue to offer credit to our partners to stay competitive, and as a result we may be exposed to credit risk of some of our partners, which may seriously harm our business.

We engage in business with some of our partners on an open credit basis. While we attempt to monitor individual partner payment capability when we grant open credit arrangements and maintain allowances we believe are adequate to cover exposure for doubtful accounts, we cannot assure investors these programs will be effective in managing our credit risks in the future. This may be especially true as our business grows and expands, we engage with partners that have limited operating history, or we engage with partners that we may not be familiar with. If we are unable to adequately control these risks, our business could be seriously harmed.

Operating our business requires a significant amount of cash, and we may not have sufficient cash flow from our business to pay the Convertible Notes, and any other debt when due, which may seriously harm our business.

Our ability to make principal or interest payments on, or to refinance, the Convertible Notes or other indebtedness depends on our future performance, which is subject to many factors beyond our control. Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations in the future to service our debt and business. If we are unable to generate such cash flow, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as selling assets, restructuring debt, obtaining additional debt financing, or issuing additional equity securities, any of which may be on terms that are not favorable to us or, in the case of equity securities, highly dilutive to our stockholders. Our ability to refinance the Convertible Notes or our other indebtedness will depend on various factors, including the available capital markets, our business, and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our debt obligations. In addition, our existing and future debt agreements, including the Convertible Notes and Credit Facility, may contain restrictive covenants that may prohibit us from adopting any of these alternatives. Our failure to comply with these covenants could result in an event of default which, if not cured or waived, could result in the acceleration of our debt, and would seriously harm our business.

In addition, holders of the Convertible Notes have the right to require us to repurchase all or a portion of the Convertible Notes on the occurrence of a fundamental change at a repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Convertible Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but excluding, the fundamental change repurchase date. Further, if a make-whole fundamental change as defined in each of the indentures governing the Convertible Notes, or the Indentures, occurs prior to the maturity date of the Convertible Notes, we will in some cases be required to increase the conversion rate for a holder that elects to convert its Convertible Notes in connection with such make-whole fundamental change. On the conversion of the Convertible Notes, unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our Class A common stock to settle such conversion (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we will be required to make cash payments for the Convertible Notes being converted. However, we may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to make such repurchases of the Convertible Notes surrendered or pay cash with respect to the Convertible Notes being converted.

If we default on our credit obligations, our operations may be interrupted and our business could be seriously harmed.

We have a Credit Facility that we may draw on to finance our operations, acquisitions, and other corporate purposes, such as funding our tax-withholding and remittance obligations in connection with settling RSUs.purposes. If we default on these credit obligations, our lenders may:

If any of these events occur, our operations may be interrupted and our ability to fund our operations or obligations, as well as our business, could be seriously harmed. In addition, our Credit Facility contains operating covenants, including customary limitations on the incurrence of certain indebtedness and liens, restrictions on certain intercompany transactions, and limitations on the amount of dividends and stock repurchases. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, and breaches of these covenants could result in a default under the Credit Facility and any future financial agreements into which we may enter. If not waived, defaults could cause our outstanding indebtedness under our outstanding Convertible Notes or our Credit Facility, andincluding any future financing agreements that we may enter into, to

become immediately due and payable. For more information on our Credit Facility, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources.”

We cannot be certain that additional financing will be available on reasonable terms when needed, or at all, which could seriously harm our business.

We have incurred net losses and negative cash flow from operations in prior periods, and we may not achieve or maintain profitability. As a result, we may need additional financing. Our ability to obtain additional financing, if and when required, will depend on investor demand, our operating performance, our credit rating, the condition of the capital markets, and other factors. To the extent we use available funds or draw on our Credit Facility, we may need to raise additional funds and we cannot assure investors that additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms when required, or at all. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity, equity-linked, or debt securities, those securities may have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to the rights of our Class A common stock, and our existing stockholders may experience dilution. In the event that we are unable to obtain additional financing on favorable terms, our interest expense and principal repayment requirements could increase significantly, which could seriously harm our business.

Risks Related to Taxes

New legislation that would change U.S. or foreign taxation of business activities, including the imposition of tax based on gross revenue, could seriously harm our business, or thefinancial markets and the market price of our Class A common stock.

Reforming the taxation of international businesses has been a priority for politicians, and a wide variety of changes have been proposed or enacted. Due to the large and expanding scale of our international business activities, any changes in the taxation of such activities may increase our tax expense, the amount of taxes we pay, or both, and seriously harm our business. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the Tax Act, was enacted in December 2017 and significantly reformed the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code. The Tax Act lowered U.S. federal corporate income tax rates, changed the utilization of future net operating loss carryforwards, allowed for the expensing of certain capital expenditures, and put into effect sweeping changes to U.S. taxation of international business activities. However, the current U.S. administration has indicated a desire to reform the Code, including by potentially increasing U.S. federal corporate income tax rates, and it is currently unclear what, if any, changes to the Code will be enacted and how that may affect our business or the financial markets and the market price of our Class A common stock.

In addition, many jurisdictions and intergovernmental organizations have been discussing proposals that may change various aspects of the existing framework under which our tax obligations are determined in many of the jurisdictions in which we do business and in which our users are located. Some jurisdictions have enacted, and others have proposed, taxes based on gross receipts applicable to digital services regardless of profitability. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has been working on a proposal that may change how taxable presence for digital services is defined and result in the imposition of taxes based on net income in countries where we have no physical presence.

We continue to examine the impact these and other tax reforms may have on our business. The impact of these and other tax reforms is uncertain and one or more of these or similar measures could seriously harm our business.

We may have exposure to greater-than-anticipated tax liabilities, which could seriously harm our business.

Our income tax obligations are based on our corporate operating structure and third-party and intercompany arrangements, including the manner in which we develop, value, and use our intellectual property and the valuations of our intercompany transactions. The tax laws applicable to our international business activities, including the laws of the United States and other jurisdictions, are subject to change and uncertain interpretation. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology, intercompany arrangements, or transfer pricing, which could increase our worldwide effective tax rate and the amount of taxes we pay and seriously harm our business. Taxing authorities may also determine that the manner in which we operate our business is not consistent with how we report our income, which could increase our effective tax rate and the amount of taxes we pay and seriously harm our business. In addition, our future income taxes could fluctuate because of earnings being lower than anticipated in jurisdictions that have lower statutory tax rates and higher than anticipated in jurisdictions that have higher statutory tax rates, by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, or by changes in tax laws, regulations, or accounting principles. We are subject to regular review and audit by U.S. federal and state and foreign tax authorities. Any adverse outcome from a review or audit could seriously harm our business. In addition, determining our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities

requires significant judgment by management, and there are many transactions where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe that our estimates are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements for such period or periods and may seriously harm our business.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited, each of which could seriously harm our business.

As of December 31, 2017,2021, we had U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $1.6$7.5 billion and state net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $930.2 million.$4.4 billion, as well as U.K. net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $3.2 billion. We also accumulated U.S. federal and state research tax credits of $476.6 million and $292.8 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2021. Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income and taxes may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” occurs if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by “5% shareholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. In the event that it is determined that we have in the past experienced an ownership change, or if we experience one or more ownership changes as a result of future transactions in our stock, then we may be limited in our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and other tax assets to reduce taxes owed on the net taxable income that we earn. Any limitations on

In the ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and other tax assets could seriously harm our business.

Additionally, the Tax Act, which was enacted on December 22, 2017, significantly reforms the Code, including changes to the rules governing net operating loss carryforwards. ForUnited States, net operating loss carryforwards arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 the Tax Act limits a taxpayer’s ability to utilize such carryforwards to 80% of taxable income. In addition, net operating loss carryforwards arising in tax years ending after December 31, 2017 can be carried forward indefinitely but carrybackuse of such carryforwards is generally prohibited.limited to 80% of taxable income. Net operating loss carryforwards generated by us before January 1, 2018 will not be subject to the taxable income limitation and will continue to have a twenty-year carryforward period. However,In the changesU.K., net operating loss carryforwards can be carried forward indefinitely; however, use of such carryforwards in the carryforwarda given year is generally limited to 50% of such year’s taxable income and carryback periods as well asmay be subject to ownership change rules that restrict the new limitation on use of net operating losses may significantly impact ourloss carryforwards.

Any limitations on the ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards generated after December 31, 2017,and other tax assets, as well as the timing of any such use, and could seriously harm our business.

If our goodwill or intangible assets become impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings, which could seriously harm our business.

Under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, we review our intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. Goodwill is required to be tested for impairment at least annually. As of December 31, 2017, we had recorded a total of $806.4 million of goodwill and intangible assets, net related to our acquisitions. An adverse change in market conditions, particularly if such change has the effect of changing one of our critical assumptions or estimates, could result in a change to the estimation of fair value that could result in an impairment charge to our goodwill or intangible assets. Any such material charges may seriously harm our business.

We cannot be certain that additional financing will be available on reasonable terms when needed, or at all, which could seriously harm our business.

We have incurred net losses and negative cash flow from operations for all prior periods, and we may not achieve or maintain profitability. As a result, we may need additional financing. Our ability to obtain additional financing, if and when required, will depend on investor demand, our operating performance, the condition of the capital markets, and other factors. To the extent we use available funds or draw on our Credit Facility, we may need to raise additional funds and we cannot assure investors that additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms when required, or at all. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity, equity-linked, or debt securities, those securities may have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to the rights of our Class A common stock, and our existing stockholders may experience dilution. In the event that we are unable to obtain additional financing on favorable terms, our interest expense and principal repayment requirements could increase significantly, which could seriously harm our business.

Payment transactions using Snapcash or future products may subject us to additional regulatory requirements and other risks that could be costly and difficult to comply with and could seriously harm our business.

Our users can use Snapchat to send cash to other users using our Snapcash feature. Depending on how our Snapcash product evolves or whether we develop additional commerce products in the future, we may be subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, including those governing money transmission, gift cards, and other prepaid access instruments, electronic funds transfers, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, gambling, banking and lending, and import and export restrictions. Although we currently use the service of a third party to provide the Snapcash feature, these laws may apply to us in some jurisdictions. To increase flexibility in how our use of Snapcash may evolve and to mitigate regulatory uncertainty, we may be required to apply for certain money-transmitter licenses in the United States, which may generally require us to demonstrate compliance with many domestic laws in these areas. Our

efforts to comply with these laws and regulations could be costly and divert management’s time and effort and may still not guarantee compliance. If we are found to violate any of these legal or regulatory requirements, we may be subject to monetary fines or other penalties, such as a cease-and-desist order, or we may be required to make product changes, any of which could seriously harm our business. Moreover, the Snapcash product is not enabled on Snapchat by default, and our users must manually enable the feature within the application, which may prevent the Snapcash product from gaining traction with our users or becoming a material part of our business. We have not recognized revenue related to Snapcash to date.

In addition, we may be subject to a variety of additional risks as a result of Snapcash, including:

If any of these risks occurs, our business may be seriously harmed.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock

Holders of Class A common stock have no voting rights. As a result, holders of Class A common stock will not have any ability to influence stockholder decisions.

Class A common stockholders have no voting rights, unless required by Delaware law. As a result, all matters submitted to stockholders will be decided by the vote of holders of Class B common stock and Class C common stock. As of December 31, 2017,2021, Mr. Spiegel and Mr. Murphy control approximately 95.2%over 99% of the voting power of our capital stock, and Mr. Spiegel alone may exercise voting power,control over our outstanding capital stock. Mr. Spiegel and potentially either one of themMr. Murphy voting together, or in many instances, Mr. Spiegel acting alone, will have the ability to control the outcome ofover all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval. In addition, because our Class A common stock carries no voting rights (except as required by Delaware law), the issuance of the Class A common stock in future offerings, in future stock-based acquisition transactions, or to fund employee equity incentive programs could prolong the duration of Mr. Spiegel’s and Mr. Murphy’s current relative ownership of our voting power and their ability to elect certain directors and to determine the outcome of all matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders. This concentrated control eliminates other stockholders’ ability to influence corporate matters and, as a result, we may take actions that our stockholders do not view as beneficial. As a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.

We cannot predict the impact our capital structure and the concentrated control by our founders may have on our stock price or our business.

Although other U.S.-based companies have publicly traded classes of non-voting stock, to our knowledge, no other publicwe were the first company has listedto only list non-voting stock on a U.S. stock exchange. We cannot predict whether this structure, combined with the concentrated control by Mr. Spiegel and Mr. Murphy, will result in a lower trading price or greater fluctuations in the trading price of our Class A common stock, or will result in adverse publicity or other adverse consequences. In addition, some indexes are considering whether tohave indicated they will exclude non-voting stock, like our Class A common stock, from their membership. For example, in July 2017, FTSE Russell, a provider of widely followed stock indexes, stated that it plans to requirerequires new constituents of its indexes to have at least five percent of their voting rights in the hands of public stockholders. In addition, in July 2017, S&P Dow Jones, another provider of widely followed stock indexes, has stated that companies with multiple share classes will not be eligible for certain of their indexes. As a result, our Class A common stock willis likely not be eligible for these stock indexes. We cannot assure you that other stock indexes will not take a similar approach to FTSE Russell or S&P Dow Jones in the future. Exclusion from indexes could make

our Class A common stock less attractive to investors and, as a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected. Additionally, the exclusion of our Class A common stock from these indexes may limit the types of investors who invest in our Class A common stock and could make the trading price of our Class A common stock more volatile.

Because our Class A common stock is non-voting, we and our stockholders are exempt from certain provisions of U.S. securities laws. This may limit the information available to holders of our Class A common stock.

Because our Class A common stock is non-voting, significant holders of our common stock are exempt from the obligation to file reports under Sections 13(d), 13(g), and 16 of the Exchange Act. These provisions generally require periodic reporting of beneficial ownership by significant stockholders, including changes in that ownership. For example, in November 2017,we believe that Tencent Holdings Limited, notified us that it, together with its affiliates, acquired 145,778,246 sharesholds greater than 10% of our

non-voting Class A common stock via open market purchases.based in part on Tencent Holdings Limited’s public reporting. As a result of our capital structure, Tencent and Snapholders are not obligated to disclose changes in Tencent’s ownership of our Class A common stock, so there can be no assurance that you, or we, will be notified of any such changes. Our directors and officers are required to file reports under Section 16 of the Exchange Act. Our significant stockholders, other than directors and officers, are exempt from the “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and related rules with respect to their purchases and sales of our securities. As such, stockholders will be unable to bring derivative claims for disgorgement of profits for trades by significant stockholders under Section 16(b) of the Exchange Act unless the significant stockholders are also directors or officers.

Since our Class A common stock is our only class of stock registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act and that class is non-voting, we are not required to file proxy statements or information statements under Section 14 of the Exchange Act, unless a vote of the Class A common stock is required by applicable law. Accordingly, legal causes of action and remedies under Section 14 of the Exchange Act for inadequate or misleading information in proxy statements may not be available to holders of our Class A common stock. If we do not deliver any proxy statements, information statements, annual reports, and other information and reports to the holders of our Class B common stock and Class C common stock, then we will similarly not provide any of this information to holders of our Class A common stock. Because we are not required to file proxy statements or information statements under Section 14 of the Exchange Act, any proxy statement, information statement, or notice of our annual meeting may not include all information under Section 14 of the Exchange Act that a public company with voting securities registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act would be required to provide to its stockholders. Most of that information, however, will be reported in other public filings. For example, any disclosures required by Part III of Form 10-K as well as disclosures required by the NYSE for the year ended December 31, 20172021 that are customarily included in a proxy statement are instead included in this Form 10-K,our Annual Report, rather than a proxy statement. But some information required in a proxy statement or information statement is not required in any other public filing. For example, we will not be required to comply with the proxy access rules under Section 14 of the Exchange Act. If we take any action in an extraordinary meeting of stockholders where the holders of Class A common stock are not entitled to vote, we will not be required to provide the information required under Section 14 of the Exchange Act. Nor will we be required to file a preliminary proxy statement under Section 14 of the Exchange Act. Since that information is also not required in a Form 10-K, holders of Class A common stock may not receive the information required under Section 14 of the Exchange Act with respect to extraordinary meetings of stockholders. In addition, we are not subject to the “say-on-pay” and “say-on-frequency” provisions of the Dodd–Frank Act. As a result, our stockholders do not have an opportunity to provide a non-binding vote on the compensation of our executive officers. Moreover, holders of our Class A common stock will be unable to bring matters before our annual meeting of stockholders or nominate directors at such meeting, nor can they submit stockholder proposals under Rule 14a-8 of the Exchange Act.

The trading price of our Class A common stock has been and will likely continue to be volatile.

The trading price of our Class A common stock has been and is likely to continue to be volatile. Shares of Class A common stock were sold in our IPO in March 2017 at a price of $17.00 per share. Since then, the trading price of our Class A common stock has ranged from $11.28$4.82 to $29.44$83.34 through December 31, 2017.2021. Declines or volatility in our trading price could make it more difficult to attract and retain talent, adversely impact employee retention and morale, and may require us to issue more equity to incentivize team members which could dilute stockholders. The market price of our Class A common stock may fluctuate or decline significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

In addition, extreme price and volume fluctuations in the stock markets have affected and continue to affect many technology companies’ stock prices.prices, including us. Often, their stock prices have fluctuated in ways unrelated or disproportionate to the companies’ operating performance. In the past, stockholders have filed securities class-action litigation following periods of market volatility. Beginning on May 16, 2017,For example, in November 2021, we, and certain of our officers, and directors, and the underwriters for our IPO were named as defendants in a securities class actionsaction lawsuit in federal court purportedly brought on behalf of purchasers of our Class A common stock. ThisThe lawsuit alleges that we and certain of our officers made false or misleading statements and omissions concerning the impact that Apple’s ATT framework would have on our business. We believe we have meritorious defenses to this lawsuit, but an unfavorable outcome could seriously harm our business. Any litigation could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, and seriously harm our business.

Conversions or exchanges of the Convertible Notes may dilute the ownership interest of our stockholders or may otherwise affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

The conversion of some or all of the Convertible Notes may dilute the ownership interests of our stockholders. On conversion of the Convertible Notes, we have the option to pay or deliver, as the case may be, cash, shares of our Class A common stock, or a combination of cash and shares of our Class A common stock. If we elect to settle our conversion obligation in shares of our Class A common stock or a combination of cash and shares of our Class A common stock, any sales in the public market of our Class A common stock issuable on such conversion could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our Class A common stock. In addition, the existence of the Convertible Notes may encourage short selling by market participants because the conversion of the Convertible Notes could be used to satisfy short positions, or anticipated conversion of the Convertible Notes into shares of our Class A common stock, any of which could depress the market price of our Class A common stock.

We may also engage in exchanges, repurchase, or induce conversions, of the Convertible Notes in the future. Holders of the Convertible Notes that participate in any of these exchanges, repurchases, or induced conversions may enter into or unwind various derivatives with respect to our Class A common stock or sell shares of our Class A common stock in the open market to hedge their exposure in connection with these transactions. These activities could decrease (or reduce the size of any increase in) the market price of our Class A common stock or the Convertible Notes, or dilute the ownership interests of our stockholders. In addition, the market price of our Class A common stock is likely to be affected by short sales of our Class A common stock or the entry into or unwind of economically equivalent derivative transactions with respect to our Class A common stock by

investors that do not participate in the exchange transactions and by the hedging activity of the counterparties to our Capped Call Transactions or their respective affiliates.

We may still incur substantially more debt or take other actions that would diminish our ability to make payments on the Convertible Notes when due. Our ability to repay our debt depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive, and other factors beyond our control.

We and our subsidiaries may incur substantial additional debt in the future, subject to the restrictions contained in our current and future debt instruments. We are not restricted under the terms of the Indentures governing the Convertible Notes from incurring additional debt, securing existing or future debt, repurchasing our stock, making investments, paying dividends, recapitalizing our debt, or taking a number of other actions that could have the effect of diminishing our ability to make payments on the Convertible Notes when due.

Our ability to pay our debt when due or to refinance our indebtedness, including the Convertible Notes, depends on our financial condition at such time, the condition of capital markets, and our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive, and other factors beyond our control.

The conditional conversion feature of the Convertible Notes, if triggered, may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.

The Convertible Notes are convertible at the option of the holder. In the event the conditions for optional conversion of the 2025 Notes, 2026 Notes, or 2027 Notes by holders are met before the close of business on the business day immediately preceding February 1, 2025, May 1, 2026, or February 1, 2027, respectively, holders of the applicable Convertible Notes will be entitled to convert the Convertible Notes at any time during specified periods at their option. If one or more holders elect to convert their Convertible Notes, unless we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our Class A common stock (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we may settle all or a portion of our conversion obligation in cash, which could adversely affect our liquidity. In addition, even if holders do not elect to convert their Convertible Notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the Convertible Notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital and may seriously harm our business.

We entered into certain hedging positions that may affect the value of the Convertible Notes and the volatility and value of our Class A common stock.

In connection with the issuance of the Convertible Notes, we entered into certain hedging positions with certain financial institutions. These hedging positions are expected generally to reduce potential dilution of our Class A common stock on any conversion of the Convertible Notes or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the principal amount of such converted Convertible Notes, as the case may be, with such reduction or offset subject to a cap.

The counterparties to these hedging positions or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivatives with respect to our Class A common stock or purchasing or selling our Class A common stock in secondary market transactions prior to the maturity of the Convertible Notes (and are likely to do so during any observation period related to a conversion of Convertible Notes or following any repurchase of Convertible Notes by us on any fundamental change repurchase date or otherwise). This activity could cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the market price of our Class A common stock or the Convertible Notes. In addition, if any such hedging positions fail to become effective, the counterparties to these hedging positions or their respective affiliates may unwind their hedge positions, which could adversely affect the value of our Class A common stock.

Delaware law and provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, as well as our Indentures, could make a merger, tender offer, or proxy contest difficult or more expensive, thereby depressing the trading price of our Class A common stock.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could depress the trading price of our Class A common stock by acting to discourage, delay, or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous. These provisions include the following:

Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws, or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.

An active trading marketFurthermore, certain provisions in the Indentures governing the Convertible Notes may make it more difficult or expensive for our Class A common stock may not be sustained.

Our Class A common stock is listeda third party to acquire us. For example, the Indentures require us, at the holders’ election, to repurchase the Convertible Notes for cash on the NYSEoccurrence of a fundamental change and, in certain circumstances, to increase the conversion rate for a holder that converts its Convertible Notes in connection with a make-whole fundamental change. A takeover of us may trigger the requirement that we repurchase the Convertible Notes or increase the conversion rate, which could make it more costly for a third party to acquire us. The Indentures also prohibit us from engaging in a merger or acquisition unless, among other things, the surviving entity assumes our obligations under the symbol “SNAP.” However, we cannot assure you that an active trading market forConvertible Notes and the Indentures. These and other provisions in the Indentures could deter or prevent a third party from acquiring us even when the acquisition may be favorable to holders of the Convertible Notes or our Class A common stock will be sustained or maintained. In addition, we cannot assure you that the liquidity of any trading market will provide stockholders the ability to sell shares of our Class A common stock when or at prices that they desire.stockholders.

Future sales of shares by existing stockholders could cause our stock price to decline.

If our existing stockholders, including employees and service providers who obtain equity, sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public market, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline. As of December 31, 2017,2021, we had outstanding a total of 883.0 million1.4 billion shares of Class A common stock, 122.622.8 million shares of Class B common stock, and 216.6231.6 million shares of Class C common stock. In addition, as of December 31, 2017, 180.32021, 82.2 million shares of Class A common stock 21.0and 0.6 million shares of Class B common stock, and 34.3 million shares of Class C common stock were subject to outstanding stock options and RSUs. As a result of our capital structure, holders who are not required to file reports under Section 16 of the Exchange Act are not obligated to disclose changes in ownership of our Class A common stock, so there can be no assurance that you, or we, will be notified of any such changes. All of our outstanding shares other thanare eligible for sale in the public market, except approximately 50 million shares of Class A common stock issued in our IPO which are subject to one-year lock-up agreements with us, and 498.6374.0 million shares (including options exercisable and RSAs subject to forfeiture as of December 31, 2017)2021) held by directors, executive officers, and other affiliates that are subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 of the Securities Act are eligible for sale in the public market.Act. Our employees, other service providers, and directors are subject to our quarterly trading window closures.

The In addition, we have reserved shares subject to outstanding stock options and RSUs will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting agreements and subject to Rule 144 limitations applicable to affiliates. We filed a registration statement on Form S-8 under the Securities Act covering all the shares of Class A common stock subject to outstanding stock options or otherwise reserved for issuance under our equity incentive plans, as well asplans. We may also issue shares of our Class A common stock issuable on conversion ofor securities convertible into our Class BA common stock. Shares covered by the Form S-8 registration statement are eligible for salestock from time to time in the public markets, subject to Rule 144 limitations applicable to affiliates. Ifconnection with a financing, acquisition, investment, or otherwise. When these additional shares are issued and subsequently sold, or if it is perceived that they willwould be sold in the public market,dilutive to existing stockholders and the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline.

If securities or industry analysts either do not publish research about us, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about us, our business, or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our common stock adversely, the trading price or trading volume of our Class A common stock could decline.

The trading market for our Class A common stock is influenced in part by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. If one or more of the analysts initiate research with an unfavorable rating or downgrade our Class A common stock, provide a more favorable recommendation about our competitors, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our Class A common stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the trading price or trading volume to decline. Since we do not provide only limited financial guidance, or projections, this may increase the probability that our financial results are perceived as not in line with analysts’ expectations, and could cause volatility to our Class A common stock price.

We are an emerging growth company, and any decision on our part to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies could make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an emerging growth company, and, for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to “emerging growth companies,” including:

We can continue to be an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act, for up to five years following our IPO. We do not currently expect to continue to be an emerging growth company for five years and, therefore, do not expect to be able to take advantage of these various exemptions. However, so long as our Class A common stock remains both non-voting and our only publicly traded class of stock, we will not be subject to the requirements of holding nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments because we would not be subject to the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, mandating advisory votes.

We cannot predict if investors will find our Class A common stock less attractive if we choose to rely on any of the exemptions afforded emerging growth companies. If some investors find our Class A common stock less attractive because we rely on any of these exemptions, there may be a less active trading market for our Class A common stock and the market price of our Class A common stock may be more volatile.

Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this accommodation allowing for delayed adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

We do not intend to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable future.

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not expect to declare or pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, you may only receive a return on your investment in our Class A common stock if the market price of our Class A common stock increases. In addition, our Credit Facility includes restrictions on our ability to pay cash dividends.

We have previously identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, and ifIf we are unable to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, and the market price of our Class A common stock may be seriously harmed.

We are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting, and to report any material weaknesses in those internal controls, subject to any exemptions that we avail ourselves to under the JOBS Act. For example, in 2018 we are required to perform system and process evaluation and testing of ourthose internal control over financial reportingcontrols to allow management to report on their effectiveness, report any material weaknesses in such internal controls, and obtain an opinion from our independent registered public accounting firm regarding the effectiveness of oursuch internal control over financial reporting,controls as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. WeAct, all of which is time-consuming, costly, and complicated. If we are unable to comply with these requirements in the process of designing, implementing, and testinga timely manner, if we assert that our internal control over financial reporting required to comply with this obligation. That process is time-consuming, costly, and complicated.

We and our prior independent registered public accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, identifiedineffective, if we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, for the year ended December 31, 2014, related to the lack of sufficient qualified accounting personnel, which led to incorrect application of generally accepted accounting principles, insufficiently designed segregation of duties, and insufficiently designed controls over business processes, including the financial statement close and reporting processes with respect to the development of accounting policies, procedures, and estimates. After these material weaknesses were identified, management implemented a remediation plan that included hiring key accounting personnel, creating a formal month-end close process, and establishing more robust processes supporting internal controls over financial reporting, including accounting policies, procedures, and estimates. As of December 31, 2015, we have implemented controls sufficient to remediate the material weaknesses. Our remediation efforts are complete and we did not incur any material costs.

If we identify future material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, if we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner or assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion or expresses a qualified or adverse opinion about the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our Class A common stock could be negatively affected. In addition, we could become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed,NYSE, the SEC, and other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.

The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, result in more litigation, and divert management’s attention.

We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, the listing requirements of the NYSE, and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Complying with these rules and regulations have caused and will increase ourcontinue to cause us to incur additional legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, be time-consuming or costly, and continue to increase demand on our systems and resources. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business and operating results.results, and that our independent registered public accounting firm provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.

By complying with public disclosure requirements, our business and financial condition are more visible, which we believe may result in increased threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. For example, beginning on May 16, 2017,in November 2021, we, and certain of our officers, and directors, and the underwriters of our IPO were named as defendants in a securities class actionsaction lawsuit in federal court purportedly brought on behalf of purchasers of our Class A common stock. The lawsuit alleges that we and certain of our officers made false or misleading statements and omissions concerning the impact that Apple’s ATT framework would have on our business. We believe we have meritorious defenses to this lawsuit, but an unfavorable outcome could seriously harm our business. Shareholder litigation can subject us to substantial costs and divert resources and the attention of management from our business. If thosebusiness and, if the claims are successful, our business could be seriously harmed. Even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, the time and resources needed to resolve them could divert our management’s resources, impose large defense costs, and seriously harm our business.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for:

This provision would not apply to actions brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any derivative actionother claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all Securities Act claims, which means both courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or proceeding brought oncontrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our behalf;

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation further provides that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.

These exclusive-forumexclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claiman action in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring an action in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such an instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of our exclusive forum provisions, which may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. If a court were to find either exclusive-forumexclusive forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, all of which could seriously harm our business.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff CommentsComments.

None.

Item 2. Properties.

Our corporate headquarters are located in and around Venice,Santa Monica, California, where we holdoccupy approximately 690,000603,000 square feet, across several locations.including some remaining Venice locations and excluding leases we have ceased to use primarily as a result of moving to a centralized corporate office. As of December 31, 2017,2021, our global facilities totaled an aggregate of approximately 1,144,0001.4 million square feet of office space of which about 1,135,500 was leased and 8,500 was owned. For approximately 77,000 square feet of our leased office space, we have assets recorded as buildings, as well as a corresponding long-term liability for our build-to-suit lease agreements where we are considered the deemed owner of these buildings, for accounting purposes.space. We also maintain offices in multiple locations in the United StatesNorth America and internationally in Europe, Asia, and Australia. We expect tomay add additional offices as we increase our headcount and expand our business to other continents and countries. We believe that our facilities are sufficient for our current needs and that, should it be needed, additional facilities will be available to accommodate the expansion of our business.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings.

On November 11, 2021, we, and certain of our officers, were named as defendants in a federal securities class action lawsuit filed in the United States District Court Central District of California. The lawsuit was purportedly brought on behalf of purchasers of our Class A common stock. The lawsuit alleges that we and certain of our officers made false or misleading statements and omissions concerning the impact that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework would have on our business. Defendants seek monetary damages and other relief. We believe we have meritorious defenses to this lawsuit, and intend to defend the lawsuit vigorously.

We are also currently involved in, and may in the future be involved in, legal proceedings, claims, inquiries, and investigations in the ordinary course of our business, including claims for infringing intellectual property rights related to our products and the content contributed by our users and partners. Although the results of these proceedings, claims, inquiries, and investigations cannot be predicted with certainty, we do not believe that the final outcome of these matters is reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations. Regardless of final outcomes, however, any such proceedings, claims, inquiries, and investigations may nonetheless impose a significant burden on management and employees and may come with costly defense costs or unfavorable preliminary and interim rulings.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable.

PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

Market Information for Common Stock

Our Class A common stock has been listed on the NYSE under the symbol “SNAP” since March 2, 2017. Prior to that time, there was no public market for our stock. The following table sets forth for the indicated periods the high and low intra-day sales prices per share for our Class A common stock on the NYSE.

Our Class B common stock and Class C common stock are not listed noror traded on any stock exchange.

Holders of Record

As of December 31, 2017,2021, there were 415916 stockholders of record of our Class A common stock, not includingstock. Because many of our shares of our Class A common stock are held by brokers.brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of stockholders represented by these record holders. The closing price of our Class A common stock on December 31, 2021 was $14.61 $47.03 per share as reported on the NYSE. As of December 31, 2017,2021, there were 21980 stockholders of record of our Class B common stock and two stockholders of record of our Class C common stock.

Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We intend to retain all available funds and future earnings, if any, to fund the development and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. The terms of our Credit Facility also restrict our ability to pay dividends, and we may also enter into credit agreements or other borrowing arrangements in the future that will restrict our ability to declare or pay cash dividends on our capital stock.

We have paid a stock dividend of our Class A common stock on our capital stock in the past and from time to time in the future may pay special or regular stock dividends in the form of Class A common stock, which per the terms of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation must be paid equally to all stockholders. Any future determination regarding the declaration and payment of dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on then-existing conditions, including our financial condition, operating results, contractual restrictions, capital requirements, business prospects, and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

We had no repurchases of equity securities for the three months ended December 31, 2017.None.

Recent Sale of Unregistered Securities and Use of Proceeds

Recent Sale of Unregistered Securities

During the three months ended December 31, 2017,2021, we issued or agreed to issue a total of 117,432880,440 shares of our Class A common stock as partial consideration to the stockholders of an entity we acquired in December 2017,connection with acquisitions, all in private transactions exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act pursuant to Section 4(2)4(a)(2), Regulation D, or Regulation DS under the Securities Act.

Use of Proceeds

On March 1, 2017, our Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-215866) was declared effective by the SEC for our initial public offering of Class A common stock, pursuant to which we sold an aggregate of 160,349,765 shares of our Class A common stock at an initial public offering price of $17.00 per share. There has been no material change in the planned use of proceeds from our initial public offering as described in our Prospectus.

Stock Performance Graph

This performance graph shall not be deemed “filed” with the SEC for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or incorporated by reference into any filing of Snap Inc. under the Securities Act.

The following graph shows a comparison from March 2, 2017 (the date our Class A common stock commenced trading on the NYSE) through December 31, 20172021 of the cumulative total return for our Class A common stock, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index (S&P 500 Index), and the NYSE Composite. The graph assumes that $100 was invested at the market close on March 2, 2017 in our Class A common stock, the S&P 500 Index, and the NYSE Composite, and data for the S&P 500 Index and the NYSE Composite assumes reinvestment of any dividends. The stock price performance of the following graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.

Item 6. Reserved.

Not required.

Item 6. Selected Financial Data.

The consolidated statements of operations data for each of the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016, and 2015 and the consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included in “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our results in any future period. You should read the following selected consolidated financial data together with “Management's7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,”Operations.

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The selectedIn addition to historical consolidated financial datainformation, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates, and beliefs that involve significant risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to those differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this sectionAnnual Report on Form 10-K, particularly in “Risk Factors,” “Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” and “Note Regarding User Metrics and Other Data.”

The following generally discusses 2021 and 2020 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2021 and 2020. Discussion of historical items and year-to-year comparisons between 2020 and 2019 that are not intended to replaceincluded in this discussion can be found in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our consolidatedAnnual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on February 4, 2021.

Overview of Full Year 2021 Results

Our key user metrics and financial statements and the related notes.results for fiscal year 2021 are as follows:

User Metrics

Financial Results

Overview

Snap Inc. is a camera company.

We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way that people live and communicate. We contribute to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.

Our flagship product, Snapchat, is a camera application that helps people communicate visually with friends and family through short videos and images called Snaps.

Trends in User Metrics

We define a DAU as a registered Snapchat user who opens the Snapchat application at least once during a defined 24-hour period. We define ARPU as quarterly revenue divided by the average DAUs. We assess the health of our business by measuring DAUs and ARPU because we believe that these metrics are important ways for both management and investors to understand engagement and monitor the performance of our platform. We also measure ARPU because we believe that this metric helps our management and investors to assess the extent to which we are monetizing our service.

User Engagement

We calculate average DAUs for a particular quarter by adding the number of DAUs on each day of that quarter and dividing that sum by the number of days in that quarter. DAUs are broken out by geography because markets have different characteristics.We had 319 million DAUs on average in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 306 million in the prior quarter and 265 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Quarterly Average Daily Active Users

(in millions)

Monetization

In the year ended December 31, 2021, we recorded revenue of $4.1 billion compared to revenue of $2.5 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020, an increase of 64% year-over-year. We monetize our business primarily through advertising. Our advertising products include Snap Ads and AR Ads. We measure our business using ARPU because it helps us understand the rate at which we are monetizing our daily user base.

ARPU was $4.06 in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from $3.49 in the third quarter of 2021 and $3.44 in the fourth quarter of 2020. For purposes of calculating ARPU, revenue by user geography is apportioned to each region based on a determination of the geographic location in which advertising impressions are delivered, as this approximates revenue based on user activity. This differs from the presentation of our revenue by geography in the notes to our consolidated financial statements, where revenue is based on the billing address of the advertising customer.

Quarterly Average Revenue per User

Results of Operations

Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate substantially all of our revenue through the sale of our advertising products, which primarily include Snap Ads and AR Ads, referred to as advertising revenue. Snap Ads may be subject to revenue sharing arrangements between us and the media partner. We also generate revenue from the sales of hardware products. This revenue is reported net of allowances for returns.

Cost of Revenue

Cost of revenue consists primarily of payments to third-party infrastructure partners for hosting our products, which include expenses related to storage, computing, and bandwidth costs. Cost of revenue also includes payments for content, developer, and advertiser partner costs. In addition, cost of revenue includes third-party selling costs, personnel-related costs, including salaries, benefits, and stock-based compensation expenses. Cost of revenue also includes facilities and other supporting overhead costs, including depreciation and amortization, and inventory costs.

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel-related costs, including salaries, benefits, and stock-based compensation expense for our engineers, designers, and other employees engaged in the research and development of our products. In addition, research and development expenses include facilities and other supporting overhead costs, including depreciation and amortization. Research and development costs are expensed as incurred.

Sales and Marketing Expenses

Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel-related costs, including salaries, benefits, commissions, and stock-based compensation expense for our employees engaged in sales and sales support, business development, media, marketing, corporate partnerships, and customer service functions. Sales and marketing expenses also include costs incurred for advertising, market research, tradeshows, branding, marketing, promotional expense, and public relations, as well as facilities and other supporting overhead costs, including depreciation and amortization.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel-related costs, including salaries, benefits, and stock-based compensation expense for our finance, legal, information technology, human resources, and other administrative teams. General and administrative expenses also include facilities and supporting overhead costs, including depreciation and amortization, and external professional services.

Interest Income

Interest income consists primarily of interest earned on our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities.

Interest Expense

Interest expense consists primarily of interest expense associated with our senior convertible notes, or the Convertible Notes, and commitment fees related to our revolving credit facility.

Other Income (Expense), Net

Other income (expense), net consists of realized and unrealized gains and losses on marketable securities, foreign currency transaction gains and losses, and gains and impairment on strategic investments.

Income Tax Benefit (Expense)

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and numerous foreign jurisdictions. These foreign jurisdictions have different statutory tax rates than the United States. Additionally, certain of our foreign earnings may also be taxable in the

United States. Accordingly, our effective tax rates will vary depending on the relative proportion of foreign to domestic income, use of tax credits, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in tax laws.

Adjusted EBITDA

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), excluding interest income; interest expense; other income (expense), net; income tax benefit (expense); depreciation and amortization; stock-based compensation expense; and payroll and other tax expense related to stock-based compensation; and certain other non-cash or non-recurring items impacting net income (loss) from time to time. We consider the exclusion of certain non-cash and non-recurring expenses in calculating Adjusted EBITDA to provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our business and for investors and others to evaluate our operating results in the same manner as does our management. Additionally, we believe that Adjusted EBITDA is an important measure since we use third-party infrastructure partners to host our services and therefore we do not incur significant capital expenditures to support revenue-generating activities. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for additional information and a reconciliation of net loss to Adjusted EBITDA.

Discussion of Results of Operations

The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data: