How Old is Snapchat? A Look at the History and Evolution of the Popular Social Media App
Snapchat has become one of the most popular social media apps over the past decade, especially among younger demographics. But how old is Snapchat actually? Where did it come from and how has it evolved into the multimedia messaging powerhouse it is today? Let‘s take a look back at the history and key milestones of this innovative app.
The Origins of Snapchat
Snapchat was first conceived in 2011 by Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. As sophomores taking an entrepreneurial design class, they came up with the idea for an app that would allow people to send photo messages that disappeared shortly after being viewed. This gave users a fun and low-pressure way to share moments with friends without having to worry about the images permanently existing online.
The three students got to work building an early prototype of the app under the codename "Picaboo." By July 2011, they had an working version of Snapchat for iOS devices. After some legal disputes over equity, Brown left the project and Spiegel and Murphy moved forward as the sole co-founders of the newly-christened Snapchat app.
Gaining Popularity Among Teens and Young Adults
Snapchat launched on the iOS App Store in September 2011. The Android version launched in October 2012. Early adoption was modest, with around 100,000 daily active users in the first year. But the user base grew rapidly in 2013 by focusing on teen and young adult demographics. High school and college students especially gravitated towards the playfulness and ephemerality that set Snapchat apart from platforms like Facebook.
Growth truly took off in 2014. Snapchat users were sending 700 million “snaps” per day by May 2014. Much of this growth was thanks to the introduction of two key features…
The Introduction of Stories and Discover
In October 2013, Snapchat introduced Stories. This allowed users to post snaps viewable for 24 hours to their own personal stories. The feature became hugely popular because it encouraged users to share more day-to-day moments without the pressure of permanency. By 2015 over 60% of users were posting to their Snapchat stories every day.
In January 2015, Snapchat launched Discover, a new feature showcasing channels from established media companies like BuzzFeed, CNN, ESPN and Vice. Discover brought news, entertainment and informative content onto Snapchat, helping transform it from a pure messaging app to a multimedia platform. With these additions, Snapchat was on its way to expand beyond its initial teenage user base.
Expanding Features for Marketers and Creators
By 2016, Snapchat had over 150 million daily active users. But the platform wasn’t just for messaging anymore. Snapchat began rolling out a suite a features targeted towards marketers and content creators. These included:
Lenses: Launched in September 2015, lenses allow users to overlay animated filters, characters and effects over their faces or environments. Brands can sponsor custom branded lenses.
Web integration: Launched in January 2016, the web integration allows users to easily share website content to their Snapchat stories. This feature helps drive referral traffic for publishers.
Memories: Introduced in July 2016, memories is a private storage area allowing users to save their sent snaps indefinitely. Users can also edit and send old snaps from memories.
Context cards: Unveiled in October 2017, context cards display relevant info about locations tagged on snaps. This feature helps brands showcase locations like stores and restaurants.
With a larger, more diverse audience along with tools for marketers, Snapchat looked towards continued growth into the future.
Financial Growth and Outlook
As Snapchat greatly expanded its user base and capabilities from 2011 to 2017, financial growth followed. Some key stats and milestones include:
- Over $3.4 billion in venture funding raised in multiple rounds from 2012 to 2016
- IPO launched in March 2017, valuing company at nearly $28.3 billion
- 187 million daily active users in Q1 2020
- $911.3 million in Q1 2020 revenue, up 44% year-over-year
- Projecting 50-55% annual revenue growth over next several years
Under CEO Evan Spiegel, Snap remains focused on exciting its core Gen Z demographic with fun, engaging features while expanding the multimedia content, augmented reality technologies, and marketing tools offered. With strong past growth and future financial projections, expect Snapchat to continue evolving as an innovative, unique platform bridging messaging, content and e-commerce for years to come.
Here is a timeline highlighting Snapchat’s rise from a Stanford student project into one of the world’s leading multimedia mobile apps:
April 2011: Snapchat conceived as class project by Stanford students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown
July 2011: iPhone demo of Picaboo messaging app completed
September 2011: Official iOS launch as “Snapchat”
October 2012: Android Snapchat app launches
October 2013: Story feature introduced allowing 24-hour photo/video narratives
May 2014: Over 700 million daily snaps being shared
January 2015: Discover feature launched highlighting media brand content
September 2015: Brand-sponsored lenses introduced
January 2016: Web integration added to share websites to stories
July 2016: Memories feature rolls out for snap storage and editing
October 2017: Context cards integrate location data and reviews
March 2017: Snap Inc. completes IPO at nearly $28 billion valuation
Q1 2020: 187 million daily active users; $911 million revenue
Present: Over 293 million daily users as of Q2 2022
Snapchat as we know it today was brought to life largely thanks to the vision, innovation and collaboration of two Stanford students – Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. Here is a deeper look at the two creators that developed Snapchat from a college side project into one of the world’s leading social platforms.
Evan Spiegel
Evan Spiegel was born on June 4, 1990, in Los Angeles, California. He studied product design and media mechanical engineering at Stanford University, where he started designing Snapchat as a class project in 2011.
As CEO and co-founder of Snap Inc., Spiegel has guided Snapchat’s vision, voice, design and user experience over the past decade. He led the app’s early viral growth by focusing on immediacy, authenticity and fun among high school and college demographics. Under his leadership Snapchat later expanded into a broader multimedia messaging and broadcasting platform, while introducing augmented reality features and marketing tools attracting over 293 million daily users.
Spiegel remains at the helm of Snap Inc, maintaining the app’s focus on creativity, privacy and innovation. His unique leadership style empowers teams while fostering collaboration. Spiegel has turned down huge buyout offers from tech giants and lead the company through a 2017 IPO, never wavering from his commitment to building Snapchat for the long run.
Bobby Murphy
Bobby Murphy brings the strategic software expertise to Snapchat’s founding team. Born in July 1988 in Berkeley, California, he studied mathematical and computational science at Stanford University.
Murphy’s technical skills were invaluable in building Snapchat from idea to working prototype over just a couple months in 2011. As CTO, Murphy designed the Snapchat application architecture and oversaw its coding. He created overdue-needed scalability when Snapchat went viral among teens in 2013. Murphy also conceived and developed Stories, one of the app’s most defining features.
Though publicity-averse, Murphy’s technological innovations and infrastructure leadership have been essential to scaling Snapchat from thousands to hundreds of millions of daily active users. He has since managed platform reliability and international growth, while working to evolve Snapchat with new capabilities through emerging technologies.
Evan Spiegel may be the face of the company, but Bobby Murphy and his technical expertise helped turn Snapchat from a Stanford student project into the social media giant it has become over the past decade. Together, their partnership created the beloved ephemeral messaging app that redefined how the world communicates.
