It was the number that ricocheted across the Internet, a number so large it couldn't be real: 3 billion. Dollars. In cash. Facebook reportedly offered that tidy sum for Snapchat, the disappearing-message app that has become tech's most sought-after startup.
Messaging apps are the future, or so the conventional wisdom goes. Facebook has a stand-alone Messenger service and tried to beat Snapchat at its own game with Poke (which went nowhere). Twitter has experimented with its direct-messaging feature and is reportedly exploring ways to separate DMs from the rest of the microblogging service. The market has a slew of over-the-top messaging apps—WhatsApp, Kik, Viber, and the like—but Snapchat stands apart because, like Japan's Line, the app is less a text-messaging replacement and more of an experience.
Facebook's Poke app accomplished next to nothing—unless you count driving additional traffic to Snapchat.
Snapchat is unique, but the app makes no money, and it doesn't have many users compared with other popular services that skyrocketed to success and then sold out to larger companies—and did I mention it makes no money? An offer of a few billion dollars is a lot of pressure for a little startup to handle. So let's look at why Snapchat has captured the imagination of an undisclosed number of young people, and why that magic-carpet ride can't last forever.
Is this thing on?
When I was a teenager in the early aughts, personalization was huge. You were defined by your MySpace page, with its blinking graphics and autoplaying theme song that spoke volumes about your personality. Your Top 8 reflected your changing alliances. Teens in my day chronicled their lives on diary sites such as LiveJournal, DiaryLand, and Diary-X.
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