Snap is doubling down on augmented reality with a long-shot bet – The Average Joe

    Snap is doubling down on augmented reality with a long-shot bet

    Victor Lei — Head of Research

    May 25, 2021

    Snap augmented reality

    May 25, 2021

    Snap (NYSE:SNAP) isn’t giving up on its augmented reality (AR) glasses, which flopped in 2016. Instead, it’s doubling down, with a $500m acquisition of WaveOptics, an AR technology startup.

    What’s the big deal? Snap has been on an acquisition spree, with WaveOptics being Snap’s largest to date — all part of its plans to grow revenue by 50%+ over the next few years.

    Snap announced the 4th generation of its Spectacles,  the latest version of its AR glasses, which only 0.08% of Snapchat users bought back in2016.

    Who else? Apple, Google and Facebook are all reportedly working on their own glasses.

    • Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, sees potential for AR/VR as the next computing platform.
    • But reaching that point will be difficult as it requires “fitting a supercomputer in the frame of glasses”.

    Overall, AR glasses still struggle to find a use case

    The Joe’s Take: While Snap’s bet on AR is a long-shot that could take years to play out, its other products in development could help accelerate revenue in the meanwhile — i.e becoming a shopping power app.

    Comparing: Snap is one of the more resilient social media companies — only falling 10% since Feb’s tech correction, while Twitter and Pinterest are down more than 20%.

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