Evan Spiegel: The Emergence Of Snap Inc.

The emergence of social media embodies the 21st century. Social media is an inseparable part of every millennial's life. It is impossible to imagine a day without texting our friends and followers through WhatsApp, posting images on Instagram, and scrolling through memes on Facebook. Something’s missing here? Yeah, it’s Snap (Snapchat). The emergence of Snap as a social media giant goes to Evan Spiegel.

Posting pictures with creative filters has provided a boost to Snap, frequently appearing in the ‘top grossing list’ of Android and iOS apps. Snapchat is like a blessing to the startup circuit. Time to find out how Evan Spiegel brought Snap Inc. into the picture and changed the social media industry forever.

Quick Facts

Who Is Evan Spiegel?

A co-founder of Snap Inc., formerly known as Snapchat Inc., Evan Spiegel is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of today’s times. He created Snap Inc. along with Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown, his college mates. The trio were the students of Stanford University. He enrolled at the Crossroads Schools for Arts and Sciences, and later on secured a seat at Stanford. He had an unpaid internship at Red Bull and was a paid intern for a biomedical company. He is amongst the three self-made billionaires in the world who are under 30 years of age. Evan Spiegel’s innovation permits approximately 203 million people to send photos and videos through Snap.

The Tale Behind Snap Inc.

In college, Spiegel proposed an application with ephemeral messaging for a class project that wasn’t received well by his classmates. Every noteworthy story is riddled with setbacks followed by rise to fame, and Spiegel’s story was no different. He worked with Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown to launch a prototype called ‘Picaboo’ into the social media segment. Picaboo was rechristened to Snapchat. The popularity of Snapchat and increasing user acceptance compelled Spiegel to leave Stanford University and focus only on Snapchat’s development. The number of daily active users crossed the 1 million mark unexpectedly quick.

Evan Spiegel Net Worth

Evan Spiegel's net worth is $2.1 billion as of 16th March,2020. He owns around 18 percent of the company. Evan Spiegel was named as the youngest billionaire in the world in 2015. In 2017, Spiegel and his co-worker Murphy pledged to donate 13,000,000 shares of Class A common stock over to arts and youth non-profit.

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Ups And Downs

With the steep increase in Snapchat’s revenue and popularity, nothing seemed impossible for the company. In 2016, the company rebranded itself as Snap Inc. and introduced the concept of camera-equipped spectacles. This further boosted revenue as Snap Inc. earned more than $400 million in 2016.

Snap Inc. faced challenges. After going public in 2017, the company failed to meet the public’s expectations, causing the stock price to fall in March 2017. The stock was below $12 per share by August. This was mainly due to stiff competition from Facebook. The mega-giant has its own success story, but has been accused of plagiarizing ideas and concepts of various social media companies. Snap Inc. was also a victim of plagiarism which lead to algorithmic filtering of content and several other improvements, bringing in new customers.

Avoiding Facebook-zone

After scaling new heights, Spiegel received an offer from Facebook. CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion. Spiegel, a visionary entrepreneur, refused to sell his venture even though he and his co-workers were to net around $750 million from the Facebook deal. Evan Spiegal never seeked short term gains, a big win mattered to him the most.

Rift Between The Co-founders

Snapchat was now a big shot. In order to have his share of the pie, Reggie Brown filed a lawsuit on the grounds that his idea was being used by Spiegel and Murphy for developing Snap. Brown argued he wasn’t provided the intellectual property rights of the company even though the iconic ghost logo was his creation. In 2014, Reggie Brown received a settlement of $157.5 million.

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Spiegel’s Global Influence

The social media industry owes to Spiegel. His efforts to connect people all over the world have made him a popular household name. Even though he was offered to sell Snap Inc. to Facebook, he refused. Short term investments never enticed him. This is a lesson for budding entrepreneurs! Even though Snapchat’s idea was later on copied by Facebook, it found out other ways to attract customers. In the present era, it is never easy to sustain momentum as a social media application, but Snap Inc. did it by being unique. Having more than 1 million daily users from around the globe consistently is a testimony to Snap Inc.’s position as a heavyweight. This in turn has cemented Evan Spiegel’s place in history.