Given the overriding narrative, it's fairly easy to dismiss Snapchat, and to assume that it's on the steady decline from its hype-filled early beginnings.

That's what the user numbers would suggest - as per Snap's latest performance report, the app actually lost a million daily active users over the past year, with even larger drops in its DAU count within that period.

That, at only 191 million users to begin with, is not a great sign - but there's more to Snap than the headline user counts alone. The app remains very sticky, with its users continuing to return to it, and younger users still very closely aligned to their Snap networks and content.

That 'stickiness' could be best exemplified in the viewer stats for its Snap Originals shows - short, TV-style programs users can watch via Snap's Discover platform. Back in April, at Snap's first partner summit, the company announced that it would be adding a slate of new shows, after seeing success with the first round of programs from publishers like NBC, E News and ESPN. 

Now, Snap says that the best performers within its Originals are seeing 20 million plus viewers, with one program, 'Endless Summer', already reaching 28 million unique viewers in its first season.

For comparison, the recent finale of 'Game of Thrones' set a record for HBO, reaching 19.3 million viewers. Those figures aren't directly comparable - the actual measures used are different, in that Snap saw 28 million unique viewers tune in at some stage over the season of 'Endless Summer', not for each specific episode. But still, it's an enticing number - there's reason to be optimistic about the future of Snap yet.

The show, and Discover programming in general, highlights Snap's increasing focus on catering to its user base with unique, niche offerings, which may not see it push its overall user counts up to the levels of Instagram - and definitely not Facebook. But neither comparison was ever likely - instead, Snap's looking to show that even with a smaller audience, it's really engagement, and capacity to drive action, that should be of value to advertisers.

That's a good argument to make - as noted, Snap remains hugely influential with younger audiences, which can definitely help drive that 'cool factor', and inspire consumer action. If Snap can show that it is, in fact, able to not only generate significant attention, and keep users engaged, but that it can also inspire people to part with their money as a result, that could help boost its business prospects, and keep it evolving - even without hitting some magical DAU count.

And Snap's revenue figures are improving - the company generated $320 million in Q1 revenue, a 39% increase year-on-year. It still has some work to do to prove the value of its ad options, but as these figures show, Snap can still draw a significant crowd - and that crowd, if it can keep them on platform, could prove very valuable for advertisers.