After securing $13.5m (£8.7m) in venture capital back in February, one of the latest additions to the social media list is now reportedly worth $800m (£500m).
Snapchat users are able to send photos or short video clips to their friends via the network. It differs from the services offered by Instagram and Vine in that, rather than photos and videos forming a timeline, any content shared between users disappears after several seconds.
The app’s fast growth has been compared to the levels of growth experienced by networks Instagram and Twitter in their early days.
Social giant Facebook previously launched a similar service to rival Snapchat. However, the offering failed to make an impression on users, while Snapchat’s success continued to soar and its market share increased. The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is one high profile user of Snapchat.
The company now has a valuation even higher than what Facebook paid for Instagram, when it acquired the photo and video sharing app last year. An estimated 40 million images are now shared via Instagram every day.
The app was developed by Stanford classmates Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. Rather than opting for a base in Silicon Valley, the two entrepreneurs have their 17-strong team in a house located on California’s Venice Beach.
Snapchat’s new promising valuation came as the company managed to raise $60m (£40m) in funding from a number of investors.
Whether or not Snapchat will allow marketers to make an impact on SEO and site traffic is yet to be seen. MTV has used the photo-sharing app in recent months to drum up audiences for reality programme Geordie Shore, sending photos of the cast to fans’ smartphones.
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