Blog #7: Snapchat

  

  In 2011 three Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy put into place an idea for a social media platform that would appeal to consumers who want whatever they post to disappear after just a few moments. The app, then known as Picaboo, was coded by Brown under the creative leadership of Spiegel and Murphy. After Brown left the project the remaining cofounders relaunched a few months later under the now famous name Snapchat.

    Young people who did not want their social media history to come back to haunt them flocked to the app for a feeling of security. Spiegel claims that his app challenges the idea that deleting something on social media is a bad thing and should only be done if what was posted was embarrassing or could get you in trouble. Snapchat takes away that responsibility by having pictures and videos disappear immediately when sending to specific people and within 24 hours of posting them to a public story.

Once the video feature was added, after beginning with only allowing pictures to be sent or posted, new users took interest in the app wanting to send short videos instead.

Large amounts of users came to the app after their favorite celebrities began using the app to better engage with fans. Some celebrities even boosted their own popularity through use of the app by having "giveaways" where a prize was being added back as a friend on Snapchat instead of only following them like every other fan.

Parents concerned with the app's privacy and not being able to see what their children were sending or posting began to make their own accounts on the app and it slowly lost users because they no longer felt that their posts were as private as they once were.

Many people still have Snapchat accounts, but after Instagram's release of "stories" as a feature almost identical to Snapchat in addition to normal Instagram functions many people choose to use just the one app for all of their social media needs instead of multiple.

https://www.thestreet.com/technology/history-of-snapchat#:~:text=Early%20History,all%20students%20at%20Stanford%20University.&text=The%20duo%20then%20approached%20Bobby,%E2%80%9D%2C%20the%20precursor%20to%20Snapchat.