The History of Snapchat
By: Zach Sterr
How Snapchat Came to Be
In April of 2011, during a product design class at Stanford University, Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy came up with the idea of a social media platform that allowed people to post pictures and videos that would disappear after a short amount of time.
Spiegel and Brown had thought the idea together and approached Murphy to help them with the coding of the application. The trio had released an app called “Picaboo” in July of 2011. Snapchat had yet to be designed and released. After “Picaboo” had been created, it layed the foundation for Snapchat to be created. However, Spiegel and Murphy forced Brown out of the trio, and used the coding to establish Snapchat in September of 2011.
Co Founders of Snapchat: Evan Speigel (left) and Bobby Murphy (right)
Snapchat had some early success in its first two years. However, it wasn’t until 2013, when the app created things called “Stories”. This enabled users to post images and videos to a public story for as long as 24 hours or shorter. The idea of the app allowed for people to post things or send them to people and they would not be saved. It was similar to real life conversations. In addition, this allowed for younger generations to use social media as a place to post things and with the auotmated deleting, they did not have to worry about their social media to haunt them.
Snapchat had become so successful, that Mark Zuckerburg made an offer to buy the company for $3 Billion in November of 2013. Murphy and Spiegel declined the offer.
Snapchat has grown from a class project into a social media giant similar to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The idea of having things deleted automatically caught on quick with younger users. They didn’t have to worry about their history affecting their past and this drew more attention and helped grow the app.
In 2014, Snapchat began having ads run on the app inbetween stories and on the “Discover” page. Snapchat filled for an IPO(Intiial Public Offering) on March 1, 2017.
Snapchat quickly became the fastest growing social media platform among millenials and continued to grow. There are currently over 500 million users on Snapchat and one of the vital sources of communication between individuals.
During David Griffin’s ,photo director of National Geographic, TED Talk, he says photos create “…stories, ones that go beyond the immediate or just the superficial that demonstrate the power of photojournalism. I believe that photography can make a real connection to people, and can be employed as a positive agent for understanding the challenges and opportunities facing our world today.”
Pictures are worth a thousand words and sometimes they only last a split second. However, they are able to connect people around the world. Snapchat does so through social media and capturing images is so much more than just something to look at as it is able to tell a story.
Social Media Has Grown So Fast and Snapchat Remains One of the Most Used Around the World
Source Links:
https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/the-snap-generation-a-guide-to-snapchats-history/
https://www.thestreet.com/technology/history-of-snapchat
https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/the-snap-generation-a-guide-to-snapchats-history/
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_griffin_how_photography_connects_us/transcript?language=en