Snap Inc. filed for its initial public offering Feb. 2, providing analysts and investors a window into the business driving one of the most eagerly anticipated technology IPOs.
The company, which said it is "reinventing the camera" with its ephemeral messaging service Snapchat, set its maximum aggregated offering price at $3 billion.
For full year 2016, Snap reported revenue of $404.5 million, a dramatic year-over-year jump from revenue of $58.7 million in 2015. But the company also reported a net loss of $514.6 million in 2016, up from a loss of $372.9 million in 2015. Net loss per share attributable to shareholders was 64 cents in 2016 and 51 cents in 2015.
Snap said its total assets were $1.72 billion in 2016 while cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were $987.4 million.
The initial filing does not spell out how many shares of stock it plans to offer in the IPO or provide an estimated value. Analysts have previously valued the company at between $20 billion and $25 billion.
The company did note frequently that its business was still growing, which could affect its overall outlook.
"Our strategy is to invest in product innovation and take risks to improve our camera platform. We do this in an effort to drive user engagement, which we can then monetize through advertising. We use the revenue we generate to fund future product innovation to grow our business," the Venice, Calif., company said in its SEC filing.
Snap reported 158 million average daily active users in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, 2016. Over 2.5 billion Snaps are typically created each day, while users visit the platform more than 18 times per day, it said.
The company also singled out its growth among younger users in its filing, a demographic shift that many analysts have predicted could have an impact for social media rivals such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.
"We anticipate that our Daily Active Users growth rate will decline over time if the size of our active user base increases or we achieve higher market penetration rates," the company said in its filing.
Snap said the majority of its use came on smartphones with Apple Inc.'s iOS operating system rather Alphabet Inc.'s Android, though it noted that it intends to build products that are compatible with Android.
Snap did not specifically break out advertising revenue in its filing, saying "our advertising business is still young but growing rapidly."
"Our advertising delivery framework is designed to optimize relevance across the entire platform, decreasing the number of wasted impressions and improving the advertising shown to our community," the company said.
Morgan Stanley and Co. LLC and Goldman Sachs & Co. are acting as representatives for the offering's underwriters, a group that also includes JP Morgan Securities LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Barclays Capital Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) and Allen & Co. Cooley LLP is acting as the company's legal counsel.