Oh Snapchat! Hot messaging app soars to 350 million messages a day
SAN FRANCISCO -- Blazing hot messaging start-up Snapchat has soared to 350 million messages a day, up from 200 million in June.
The Los Angeles company, which has raised about $73 million in funding, has only grown in popularity since Facebook unveiled a Snapchat copycat feature, founder and Chief Executive Evan Spiegel said Monday during an onstage interview at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco
“It’s certainly scary when a giant enters your space,” Spiegel said. “We now talk about it as the greatest Christmas present we ever had.”
Spiegel said he had spoken with Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, but wouldn’t say whether they Snapchatted each other or whether Facebook made an offer to buy the company.
“We haven’t received any formal acquisition offers,” he said.
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Snapchat is beginning to focus on how to make money, Spiegel said. Though he did not offer any specifics, Spiegel said Snapchat would begin with in-app purchases.
“We’ve looked to Tencent, which makes the vast majority of their revenue from in-app transactions. They had to build things that people wanted to buy. That’s a really scary challenge, to make things that people want,” Spiegel said.
He declined to say when Snapchat would press forward with its moneymaking efforts, but said he hoped it would be before the company raises its next round of funding. Snapchat had a $60-million funding round in June.
The messaging service is looking to take advantage of its growing number of users and broadening demographics.
“I was just snapping my mom this morning,” Spiegel said.
Though Snapchat recently launched an app for the new Galaxy Gear smartwatch, it’s not interested in making an app for Google Glass, Spiegel said. He says Glass feels too invasive.
“You kind of feel like you have a gun pointed at you,” Spiegel said.
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