SnapchatPrashant Iyer

praiyer

What Is It?

What Is It?Ephemeral Photo & Video messaging application

Take photos, record videos, add text and drawings (Snaps)

Users set a time limit for Snaps

Thereafter, Snaps deleted

Features

Snaps & Chat

My Story / Our Story

Snapcash

Discover

Snaptags

A Brief HistoryEvan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, & Reggie Brown at Stanford

Started out as a class project, called Picaboo initially (Summer 2011)

Called Picaboo initially

Brown and Spiegel fight over patent and equity splits (Fall 2011)

A Brief HistoryLaunched for Android in November 2012

1 Billion snaps shared by November 2012

Suffered a malicious attack in December 2013

Courted controversies: Bullying, Sexting, Privacy Invasion

A Brief HistoryBought QR scanning and iBeacon startup called Scan.me for $14 million, and

acquired Vergence Labs, makers of an eyeglass video camera

Acquires facial recognition app Looksery to power its animated selfie lenses (September 2015)

“They present Snapchat as the solution to stresses caused by the longevity of personal information on social media, evidenced by “emergency detagging of Facebook photos before job interviews and photoshopping blemishes out of candid shots before they hit the internet”

The Need & The Solution

“I wish these photos I’m sending this girl would disappear”.

-Reggie Brown, 2011

The Real Need

“Snapchat isn’t about capturing the traditional Kodak moment. It’s about communicating with the full range of human emotion -- not just what appears to be pretty or perfect”

The Founders’ Take..

Who Felt Threatened...

Financial Story$485,000 seed fund on a $4.25 valuation (April 2012)

$13.5M Series A (February 2013)

$80M Series B on a $800M valuation (June 2013)

Facebook offered $3B (November 2013)

Financial StoryGoogle offered $4B November 2013)

$50M Series C on a $200B valuation (June 2013)

$80M Series B on a $800M valuation (June 2013)

Seeks to raise up to $500 million in a new round that includes Alibaba and Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal

Financial StoryRaising new round of funding that would value it at $19B

Hunting for a CFO to give direction (Drew Vallero interim CFO)

Discover (featured content) & Stories (like ads) help the company earn money

Competitors

Self-destructing photo apps: Wickr, Slingshot, Clipchat

Social apps: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp, Vine

Secret Sauce

Access to a largely young user base

Ephemerality! Secrecy

Simple UI

What’s Hot!

Valuations are only increasing

Put on a pedestal with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Discover, Stories

Emoji categorization of friends

What’s Hot!

What’s Not!No clear road for profitability, monetization (Seem to be heading the ad way)

Unsustained growth has been a problem

Spiegel wants to go public, although when is the question

My PredictionFinding a sustained model for making money is vital

A little overcrowded space

Have the audience, just need a good plan!