Who owns Snapchat? A Mind-Boggling Idea

Waqar Ahmad March 21, 2021

0 95 5 minutes read

Millions of people use Snapchat, but most of us don’t have any idea about who owns Snapchat. Other big social media companies, such as Google, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, Snap Video and WhatsApp owners are widely known. Google owns YouTube, while TikTok is under the ownership of Chinese company ByteDance.

Twitter CEO is Elon Musk, while Meta (Mark Zuckerberg) possesses Instagram, Facebook, and Whatsapp. But, where does Snapchat belong? The selfie-taking app isn’t under any of the big giants in the world, however, it’s owned by Snap Inc.

Table of Contents

Who Owns Snapchat?

Snapchat belongs to Snap Inc. presently, which was founded by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy in September 2011. The idea about the app was initiated when Spigel’s friends were discussing the pictures they had taken and how they might disappear in the future. Later, it became the significant pillar of their newly constructed app, Snapchat. You can send pictures to your friend and they can instantly disappear if not saved.

Until 2016, Snapchat Inc. owned the app and later it was rebranded to Snap Inc. Currently, the application holds the rank of 5th in top free communication on Google Play Store with over 1B downloads. Moreover, the app generates revenue in billions through online advertisement and snap streaks from millions of users.

On average, 100 million users actively spend their time on the app. An average Snapchat user uses the app from 25 to 30 minutes daily. 60% of its users create new content daily and grow on the app. The online users mainly share their daily routine, such as what they are doing. What are they eating? To whom they are hanging out and other such snaps.

Who Owns Snapchat Inc.?

Snap Inc. was set in 2011. Afterward, co-owners Spiegel (CEO), Murphy, and Brown all fulfilled while researching at Stanford University. They’d earlier labored with each other to get a startup meant to aid prospective pupils with all the university program procedures.

The idea was suggested by Reggie Brown, a program that will send messages and pictures that could vanish following the recipient watching them. In 2013, Meta’s owner Mark Zuckerberg tried to buy a 100% stake in Snapchat, however, its owners declined his $3 billion.

The Beginning of Snapchat

Snapchat formerly began with a program named Picaboo in 2011. However, the name was already trademarked by another company and they had to forfeit it. That’s how we got Snapchat, instead of Picaboo.

The Three-dimensional Inc. proprietors desired to generate a program that could make it possible for sending messages to ‘evaporate,’ which had been the main aim of this brand-new app. Picaboo acquired hardly any attention when first launched. In September 2011, the app’s name shifted from Picabo to today’s globally recognizable Snapchat.

Over a year after this program’s launch, video capacities were turning out to be open for Android users at the Google perform retail store, Snapchat saw an enormous growth in users, with more than 20 million users in a single day.

Snapchat Features

There are various features that billions of users love to use:

Stories
Bitmoji
Gift Snapchat+ Plus
Story Rewatch Indicator
Solar System
Custom notification sounds
Post view emojis
Priority Story Replies
Snapchat for Web
Custom icons
Capturing colour
Chat
Friend Snapscore change
Lenses
Memories
Map Appearance
Snap Map
Story timer
Camera
Chat wallpapers
Best Friends Forever
Spotlight
Custom capture buttons
Custom Story expiration

Which is Popular: Snapchat vs Instagram?

Snapchat obtained a magnificent number of end-users thinking about its comparatively youthful age, using its just competition function as the hottest Instagram; also, it has to feature Insta-gram testimonies. On July 20, 2020, it amassed over 229 million end-users worldwide, having a 20.5% growth as the prior calendar year. End-users trying absolute snaps even now rising exponentially.

Although Snapchat is quite popular, it doesn’t have as massive users as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and WhatsApp. If Snapchat is compared against Instagram, it will lose to its 2.4 billion monthly active users as it has 750 million active users per month. The app is growing day by day and it has increased 52% since 2021.

More youthful demographics commonly utilized the program, even with surveys suggesting 69 percent of 13-17-year-olds signed up for this program, combined with 62 percent of 18-29-year-olds. The low percentage of older users on the app is one of the reasons why it’s unable to compete against Instagram. Instagram users vary from young to old worldwide, it doesn’t just rely on teenagers and adults.

Who are the Creators of Snapchat?

While discovering who owns Snapchat, one can’t ignore the existence of its creators and parent company, Snap Inc. In 2011, Stanford College alumni Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, along Reggie Brown created Snapchat. Spiegel and Murphy have a joint voting strength of 95 percent, together with each creator’s talk staying transferable towards one another on their retirement or death.

Evan Spiegel

Evan Spiegel got the maximum star account of those three Snapchat founders. That is primarily a result of his quiet people dating well-known super-model Miranda Kerr.

The pair jumped into the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2015, also were wed on might 20, 17. They will have two kids jointly, Hart Kerr and also Myles Spiegel. Spiegel now sits number 16-1 over the Forbes 400 list of the USA’s wealthiest men and women.

Bobby Murphy

Bobby Murphy can be slightly more low-key than his present small business associate; however now sits 1-2 positions higher than Spiegel about the Forbes 400 record, at 148. Murphy now directs the technology and study crews in Snap Inc., while the primary engineering officer.

Reggie Brown

Even though Snapchat was the brainchild of Brown, he’d be ousted from your Business in just a month or two of their Business’s production as a result of irreconcilable differences together with his fellow co-founders. He’d subsequently recorded litigation in 2013 in opposition to Spiegel and Brown because of getting “kicked out” from the Business.

Brown could pay nearly £158 million between 2013 and 2018. Ever since that time, he’s lived mainly away in your limelight in contrast to his 2 co-founders.

Snapchat Stock-price, Shareholders, and Net Worth

As of 2024, Snapchat has a net worth of $18.16 billion while its stock price is $1.19 billion. In 2017, its net worth was the highest at the $25.5 billion IPO and the company hasn’t been able to reach the same peak again until now.

The three of the top individual shareholders of Snap Inc. and Snapchat are its founders. They hold the majority of the stake:

Robert Murphy holds 5.4% of the company.
Evan Spiegel holds 3.1% of the company.
Jeremi Gorman holds 0.1% of the company.

Apart from the major shareholders, some private investors and companies have their equity (more than the major shareholders). The private investors hold shares of Snapchat via the open stock market. Institutional corporations own shares ranging between 47 – 62%.

The top Institutional shareholders of Snap Inc.:

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. has 10.1% of the company.
Vanguard Group Inc. has 6.0% of the company.
Edgewood Management LLC has 5.0% of the company.

Conclusion

Who owns Snapchat and who is the CEO of Snapchat are no longer mysteries. CEO Spiegel is the cofounder and owner of the app along with his university friends. They are also the major stakeholders of the SNAP corporation and also run Snapchat AI and Snap glasses.

Do you love Snapchat, its filters, and stream features? Comment your take on Who owns Snapchat.

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