Mobile messaging startup Snapchat has reportedly rejected an acquisition offer from Facebook that would have valued the company at more than $3bn (£1.8bn). The Wall Street Journal said the all-cash deal would have been Facebook’s largest acquisition ever. Snapchat, which allows users to exchange smartphone photos and videos that automatically disappear in 10 seconds or […]
Mobile messaging startup Snapchat has reportedly rejected an acquisition offer from Facebook that would have valued the company at more than $3bn (£1.8bn).
The Wall Street Journal said the all-cash deal would have been Facebook’s largest acquisition ever.
Snapchat, which allows users to exchange smartphone photos and videos that automatically disappear in 10 seconds or less, is popular among teenagers.
The report of Facebook’s interest in Snapchat comes a couple of weeks after the world’s number one internet social network acknowledged that it was seeing a decline in daily use by young teenagers in the US, although it said overall use by teenagers was stable.
The Wall Street Journal said Snapchat’s co-founder Evan Spiegel is being wooed by other investors but is unlikely to consider an acquisition or investment until early next year.
The app was launched in September 2011 and, according to its blog, at least 200 million snaps are shared every day.
Children under 13 are not allowed to create accounts and there have been concerns that the app may encourage “sexting”.
To send a message to someone on Snapchat, users need to know their username and add them to a “My Friends” list.
Big growth Asia
SnapChat was recently valued at $4bn by keen investors, despite the popular self-destructing photo app not having an established revenue model.
The California-based start-up was reportedly considering a plan to raise $200m in funding from investors in Asia.
It’s thought that the newly planned round of funding for Snapchat will include bids from international tech companies, including Tencent Holdings, a Chinese company valued at upwards of $100bn and responsible for popular messaging apps in its home country. Tencent is controlled by the 43-year-old entrepreneur Ma Huateng, whom Forbes magazine claims has a personal fortune of close to $7bn, making him China’s fourth-richest man.
Ad model
Snapchat has started running sponsored content on its service, with Lynx and MTV using the photo sharing app Snapchat in a new campaign.
Lynx tested the service in partnership with TMW, sending exclusive content about a secret Lynx launch party to fans via Snapchat.
MTV used Snapchat to promote its TV show Geordie Shore, sending out exclusive photographs and videos from its own ‘Geordie Shore’ Snapchat account directly to fans’ smartphones, giving them a sneak peak of the “cheekier side” of the sixth series.
Read the Wall Street Journal report here
