Snap rallies as user growth, sales top forecasts

Shares of Snapchat parent Snap Inc. rose solidly Friday on the back of stronger-than-expected user and revenue growth.

Daily active users rose 22% from a year ago.

The company has been tinkering with its app on the Android system and that attracted more users last quarter.

Snap has added support for more languages and added more media content geared toward audiences in certain countries where Android phones are more prominent.

Snapchat says that for the first time since the app launched - the number of people around the world snap-chatting on Android devices now exceeds those doing so on an Apple iOS device.

It's also invested in new technology to drive up its user base - including the use of augmented reality - in a bet that can help brands market products like clothes and makeup to tech-savvy young users.

And so far the advertisers are responding. Total revenue, which comes mostly from ads, surged 66 percent last quarter.

Some analysts raised their price target on the stock, on the belief Snapchat has more room to grow than other social media platforms as economies reopen and vaccinated Americans get back to some sense of normalcy.

Shares of Snapchat jumped 7 percent in early Friday trading - snapping a five-session losing streak.