Spiegel Sets Ambitious Goal for Snap: Break Even This Year

Snap's co founders, Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel at the New York Stock Exchange last year. Photo by AP.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has told employees in a company-wide directive he wants the company to work toward break-even this year, an ambitious goal that could require Snap to aggressively cut costs.

Snap last year lost $720 million, before interest, taxes and charges like stock compensation expenses, due mostly to heavy spending on research and development and marketing. This year, analysts expect it to lose anywhere from $687 million to $912 million. Analysts don’t project Snap turning profitable until at least 2021.