Last week saw millions of people unfamiliar with Snapchat reading a Wall Street Journal report that the company turned down a $3 billion cash offer from Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) for the impermanent photo sharing application. That report was followed by numerous others that suggested that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) then offered $4 billion and was similarly rebuffed. If the average Snapchat user (read: teenagers sending selfies) finds out that his or her mom is now using the application, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel is going to wish he took the money and ran.
Whether you believe that Mr. Spiegel is foolish for turning down the offer or not, the fact remains that the company IS seeing ridiculous growth in its daily users and the amount of photos that they are sending.
Snapchat numbers show huge growth
Snapchat now shares 400 million snaps each day, according to CEO Evan Spiegel, who confirmed the number to TechCrunch today as reported by Jordan Crook.
In September on the Disrupt stage at the San Francisco Design Center, Spiegel announced that users of Snapchat were sharing 350 million photos per day and that that number was up from 200 million in June. Clearly, this is remarkable growth, but whether it’s sustainable is a whole different animal.
Either way, the numbers are impressive if they are forthright. 400 million photos daily represents a number that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and its property Instagram can’t match as an aggregate much less individually. The bulk of this growth is due to Android users’ increased use. The Android app was released considerably later than its iOS counterpart.
App not truly anonymous
The sharing numbers make sense given the “private” nature of the app. The quotes are due to the fact that your pictures aren’t truly erased. You can’t comply with federal warrants and offer a truly anonymous sharing application that won’t invariably used for the spread of child pornography. Never mind the fact that there are a number of screen capture capabilities in most smartphones that work around the (up to) 10 seconds of viewing that Snapchat allows.
All that said, Snapchat is enjoys a growing following, a following that allows its founders to claim bigger numbers that Facebook, while turning down insane amounts of money.
