Facebook might have the Midas touch, but Snapchat’s founder Evan Spiegel was smart to make Zuckerberg’s offer of $3 billion in 2013 disappear, as Snapchat’s most recent round of funding could bring it a valuation of between $16 billion to $19 billion.
Many criticized Facebook for “overpaying” in its $22 billion WhatsApp acquisition last year, but if Spiegel would have sold his company when the bid was made, he would have been severely shortchanged. The service which makes statuses immediately disappear, and is wildly popular with teenagers and college students who don’t want employment recruiters to see compromising social media comments and photos, just keeps growing. It has released its video and chat options, along with its Discover service that delivers news that disappears before it gets stale.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
Bloomberg reports that Snapchat expects to raise $500 million in its next round of financing, which means that Snapchat’s value has doubled in one year.
While the exact number of users has not been released by Snapchat’s management, the company said users sent more than 700 million “snap” messages daily, according to the New York Times. For its Discover service, Snapchat made deals with CNN, Comedy Central, Cosmopolitan, the Daily Mail, ESPN, Food Network, National Geographic, People, VICE, Yahoo! News and Warner Music Group, according to the New York Observer. That list is basically a Who’s Who of the most important media names today.
