Snapchat’s value disappearing in 8,7,6,5…

If you haven’t downloaded it by now, you must have heard of it. Snapchat is hot stuff with teenagers and students everywhere, the app which allows you to send short videos or pictures which self-destruct in up to 8 seconds, it also al- lows you to write text and draw on your photos. It is worth noting that 400 million ‘snaps’ are shared every day on Snapchat, more than Face- book and Instagram combined.

Snapchat has risen in popularity in a world where teenager’s parents are now on Facebook, online privacy is a daily news item, and the word ‘selfie’ was named by Oxford dictionaries as word of the year 2013.

The ephemeral messaging service allows drunken antics to be captured and appreciated, without potentially affecting one’s job prospects later in life (We’re looking at you Facebook).

Last month it was reported that Snapchat CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel rejected not only a $3 Billion offer from Facebook, but then a $4 Billion offer from Google. Both giants are no strangers to acquiring firms, with Facebook buying Instagram for $1 Billion on 12 April 2012, and Google averaging an acquisition per week in the last few years, with the highlights being YouTube and Android.

Snapchat CEO, Evan Spiegel, rejected not only a $3bn offer from Facebook, but a $4bn offer from Google

So why would Facebook want to buy Snapchat? Well recent reports suggest that Facebook is seeing a small decline in teenage users in certain markets around the world, which didn’t please investors and was reflected in a hit in their share price.

Facebook could be looking to re- capture the youth of today by buying Snapchat, or is it just trying to secure its future by buying out the new ‘next big thing’. Is Snapchat re- ally worth 3 Instagrams though?

However after being rejected, and having a top Facebook executive poached by Snapchat, Zuckerberg may be seeking revenge with rumours of introducing a messaging system into the already hugely popular Instagram. So why would Google be interested in buying Snapchat? It seems like a natural fit into Google+ circles, however, as you may have noticed, Google’s forays into social media with Google+ haven’t been very positively received, especially with the latest move into YouTube comments. Could Snapchat finally make Google+ cool, or would users move elsewhere as soon as it asks for a Google account log in?

In terms of any other tech companies getting involved, we can’t see Apple biting, iSnapchat just doesn’t sound right. Yahoo! may be interested – given CEO Marissa Mayer’s habit of buying any company associated with the word ‘mobile’ or ‘teenager’ in her efforts to make Yahoo! seem relevant again, see the acquisition of Tumblr for $1.1 Billion in May 2013.

Regardless of Snapchat’s future, get prepared for monetisation efforts through the use of advertising, the addition of the new ‘timeline’ feature is the first move to getting users used to seeing adverts. Given the amount of money at stake here, Spiegel and his team will no doubt need to take care of their user base, especially given how fickle we students can be.

How beautifully ironic it is that unless the Tech bubble continues to inflate, Snapchat’s valuation may disappear just as quickly as one of its photos.