In September 2011, the messenger, which specializes in self-deleting photos, was launched with the ghost symbol on a yellow background – a timeline.
For some reason I missed the anniversary two months ago: In September 2011, Standford students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Brown and Reggie Brown released the first version of their mobile messenger Snapchat.
Since then, the app, which specializes in self-deleting photos and videos, has had an exchange of blows with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for a decade – and above all, his Instagram platform, which also specializes in photos.
The ongoing skirmishes have a simple reason – because Zuckerberg was aware of the potential danger of Snapchat for his company early on: Just a year after it was founded, he wanted to swallow the rival for $ 60 million, which Spiegel refused.
In 2013, Zuckerberg made another takeover attempt: According to reports, he wanted to be proud Leafing three billion dollars in cash on the table to absorb Snapchat – but once again, Snapchat CEO Spiegel stood firm.
What followed was a real rabbit and hedgehog race between the two companies: Both Snapchat and Instagram are hugely successful, especially with adolescents and young adults – the app with the ghost symbol on a yellow background was even number 1 here in the USA for a long time of the most popular social media services.
As early as the end of 2013, Snapchat enabled its users to combine photos and videos into their own little stories. Zuckerberg copied this so-called stories format unrestrainedly and gradually integrated it into his Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp services – and in terms of users it was already ahead of the yellow original in 2018 with all three clones.
At about the same time, the Snapchat share, which has been listed since mid-2017, passed its all-time low. Since then, the company has caught up again: The app has almost 300 million active users. Incidentally, danger looms elsewhere: According to recently published Forrester Numbers, the Chinese video app TikTok is for the first time more popular with US youth than Instagram.
More facts & figures on 10 years of Snapchat in the following infographic – click twice to enlarge:
Those: Visual Capitalist
Related articles:
Pinterest overtakes Snapchat in the US and becomes the third largest social network
Social media among teens: Snapchat in first place – Instagram is growing strongly
Facebook, WhatsApp & Instagram Stories have left Snapchat behind
Social media among teens: Snapchat overtakes Instagram, in the USA for the first time in first place
–
