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This inventive way to use Snapchat landed one student his dream summer internship

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Graham Allgood

It was only fitting that Graham Allgood received his summer internship offer from Horizon Media via Snapchat.

After all, that's how he attracted their attention in the first place.

Business Insider first reported about Allgood's Snapchat creativity on May 12, after Allgood had already first been turned down by the company.

He'd been looking for an internship since Christmas, only to find his emails unreturned or résumé shoved into piles.

"Honestly my story to find a summer internship is fairly familiar with lots of other college students. I am an eager student who, at the end of the school year, found myself crashing on a friend’s couch, surviving on PB+J’s, and spending all my free time pursuing the optimal internship; somewhere, somehow,"Allgood wrote to Business Insider in an e-mail.

That's when he decided to do something different to stand out from the crowd.

He turned to Snapchat and designed his own geofilter to run an advertising campaign to promote himself as a great hire to the employees of Horizon Media, the largest stand-alone ad agency in the US.

Geofilters on Snapchat target a specific location and can be overlaid on a photo. In Allgood's case, he designed the Horizon name to appear alongside his at the bottom of the screen with a small "Hey Hire Me" square at the top.

He knew that the company posted photos and videos from inside the office on Tuesdays, so he spent $30 to target the company. And it definitely caught the company's attention.

"I could've run an ad campaign through Twitter and they probably wouldn't have noticed," Allgood said. "I think the interactive way to do the marketing for this résumé is the only reason it worked so well."

At the time, Horizon Media said it didn't have space in the program, so they initially turned him down, but behind the scenes, the company was trying to find him a spot. On May 17, Horizon Media offered Allgood a social-media internship — via Snapchat, of course. Allgood accepted and is headed to New York City for the summer.

"Obviously, to get noticed in today’s market, it requires more than just a resume," Allgood told Business Insider. "Here is my encouragement: It is never too late to end up where you wanted to start."

SEE ALSO: 23 things you had no idea you could do in Snapchat

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NOW WATCH: A college student declared her love on Snapchat and captivated the whole campus


Snapchat is letting X-Men fans transform into their favorite characters today

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Twentieth Century Fox has bought up nine Sponsored Snapchat Lenses to promote the forthcoming "X-Men: Apocalypse" movie.

For 24 hours on May 23, Snapchat users can overlay their selfies with nine X-Men characters: Apocalypse, Beast, Professor X, Cyclops, Mystique, Quicksilver, Magneto, Nightcrawler, and Storm.

Here's the Cyclops Lens:

xmengif1

To activate the Lenses function, Snapchat users need to point their smartphone camera towards them, then tap and hold on their face in the app.

The Lens menu then appears, which features Lenses that have been sponsored by advertisers and those created by Snapchat's in-house team.

Snapchat told Business Insider earlier this month that it has run more than 50 Sponsored Lenses campaigns in the seven months since launch and that 30 million Snaps a day are now decorated with Lenses. The ad unit ranges in price between around $100,000 up to $750,000 depending on geography and whether the Lens is tied to a specific holiday or an event.

Here's the X-Men Nightcrawler Lens:

Snapchat Lens

In addition to the Lenses, Twentieth Century Fox has also bought the first ever Snapchat ticketing ad unit.

The video ad, which will appear in the app's Discover content section, allows the use to swipe up to purchase movie theater tickets within the app. The ad began running on May 13 and will continue until May 26, the night before "X-Men: Apocalypse" debuts in theaters.

The ticket ad represents what Snapchat is calling "3Vi" ads, an extension of its "3V" advertising pitch (vertical, video, views,) that allow consumers to interact (that's what the "i" stands for) with the ad unit.

SEE ALSO: Advertisers love Snapchat's priciest ad format — and that ought to worry its social media rivals

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NOW WATCH: Humans are defying the law of evolution

Snapchat now lets you add fun stickers to photos and videos

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Snapchat is going all-in on stickers.

The ephemeral messaging app released an update on Monday that lets you add playful stickers to photo and video messages (or "snaps") in the app.

The stickers were first introduced in Snapchat's redesigned chat interface last month, but now they can be placed on any snap like emojis. Once you have the updated version of Snapchat installed, tap on the emoji picker next to the text button to see stickers.

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Letting snaps be customized with stickers is another example of what Snapchat has been nailing: making messaging fun and creative. The company recently added the ability to "pin" emojis to objects in videos and make them look animated. Snapchat has perhaps become best known for its wacky lenses, like the most recent collection that turns you into X-Men characters.

SEE ALSO: This inventive way to use Snapchat landed one student his dream summer internship

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NOW WATCH: A college student declared her love on Snapchat and captivated the whole campus

Snapchat could now be worth $20 billion

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Snapchat Stories

Snapchat's massive valuation appears to be growing even bigger. 

Sources have told TechCrunch that Snapchat is expanding its Fidelity-led $175 million Series F round into a Series FP round, and it reportedly comes with a valuation around $20 billion.

VC data provider VCexperts have pegged Snapchat's share price at $30.72 per share, and that the new round could propel Snapchat to a valuation "as high as $22.7 billion," according to TechCrunch.

In addition to Fidelity, Alibaba, Coatue Management, General Catalyst, IVP, Kingdom Holding Company, Lightspeed, SV Angel, Tencent, and Yahoo are all investors in Snapchat, and many of them appear to be interested in participating in this new funding round, according to the report.

Snapchat has been making moves, most recently purchasing the custom emoji creation tool Bitstrips back in March, and improving its core functionality. Coupling those with the fact that Snapchat is more popular than ever, it's no surprise why investors both new and old are trying to get a bigger piece of the action.

Below is the copy of Snapchat's updated Certificate of Incorporation VCExperts provided to TechCrunch.

 

 

SEE ALSO: What Snapchat could look like in the future

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Snapchat's 'X-Men: Apocalypse' deal could bring more advertisers to the app

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Social Ad Revenue

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Digital Media Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Snapchat has debuted a new ad campaign that lets moviegoers buy tickets for "X-Men: Apocalypse" right through the social media app.

Users can buy the tickets by swiping up on a 3Vi ad, a vertical video ad that appears on both the Live and Discover portions of the app. This action would redirect the user to a Fandango or Movietickets.com store inside Snapchat.

This deal is extremely significant for Snapchat, most notably because the ad campaign functions at each stage of the purchase funnel. It creates awareness about the movie at the start and allows customers to purchase tickets for it at the end. This type of campaign is similar to the buy buttons on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media apps. 

This is also the first time Snapchat has ever allowed the purchase of movie tickets on its platform, which could open the door for other advertisers who want to sell their products through the app. Snapchat has been building out its e-commerce functionality, a sign that it wants to reach a point where it can rival Facebook, Messenger, WeChat, Tencent, and Line in this regard.

Finally, the 3Vi integration provides a way for the advertisers to clearly and accurately track their ROI.

Will McKitterick, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on messaging apps that takes a close look at the size of the messaging app market, how these apps are changing, and the types of opportunities for monetization that have emerged from the growing audience that uses messaging services daily.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

  • Mobile messaging apps are massive. The largest services have hundreds of millions of monthly active users (MAU). Falling data prices, cheaper devices, and improved features are helping propel their growth.
  • Messaging apps are about more than messaging. The first stage of the chat app revolution was focused on growth. In the next phase, companies will focus on building out services and monetizing chat apps’ massive user base.
  • Popular Asian messaging apps like WeChat, KakaoTalk, and LINE have taken the lead in finding innovative ways to keep users engaged. They’ve also built successful strategies for monetizing their services.
  • Media companies, and marketers are still investing more time and resources into social networks like Facebook and Twitter than they are into messaging services. That will change as messaging companies build out their services and provide more avenues for connecting brands, publishers, and advertisers with users.

In full, this report:

  • Gives a high-level overview of the messaging market in the US by comparing total monthly active users for the top chat apps.
  • Examines the user behavior of chat app users, specifically what makes them so attractive to brands, publishers, and advertisers.
  • Identifies what distinguishes chat apps in the West from their counterparts in the East.
  • Discusses the potentially lucrative avenues companies are pursuing to monetize their services.
  • Offers key insights and implications for marketers as they consider interacting with users through these new platforms.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

  1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
  2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the future of messaging apps.

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The Snapchat score is a perfect example of what an ex-Googler calls unethical app design

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texting snapchat

Can product designers make decisions that are unethical?

The tech industry has been busily debating that question since former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris posted a fantastic essay on Medium earlier this week.

He writes:

And this is exactly what product designers do to your mind. They play your psychological vulnerabilities (consciously and unconsciously) against you in the race to grab your attention...

Are you upset that technology hijacks your agency?

Simply put, your incentives are different from the tech industry's. It wants to maximize engagement. You want to get the most out of whatever app or software you're using. They're not necessarily the same thing, and usually are not.

One example Harris doesn't cover in his essay is the Snapchat score. It's one of the clearest examples of unethical design to me, and even worse, it's targeting younger users — many of whom are teens.

Here's what a Snapchat score looks like — mine is pathetic:

snapchat_score

Consider:

  1. Snapchat is a service geared toward teens and young people.
  2. It quantifies popularity into a single number, the Snapchat score, which comes up frequently when adding new friends.
  3. How Snapchat calculates your score is mostly secret, but it's roughly the sum of all the messages you've sent and received.
  4. So the only way to increase your score — and hide how unpopular you actually are — is to use Snapchat more.

The score serves one real purpose: to get people to use Snapchat more.

An example of how it's pernicious: Take Katherine Pommerening, a normal 13-year-old who lives in Northern Virginia. Here's what happened when she switched user names, plummeting her score back down to zero, according to The Washington Post:

Then, because she changed her username, her Snapchat score reverted to zero. The app awards about one point for every snap you send and receive. It's also totally embarrassing and stressful to have a low Snapchat score. So in one day, she sent enough snaps to earn 1,000 points.

That's a lot of snaps! Which is great for Snapchat, because it's got her hooked. But it's less positive from the perspective of her teachers and parents — and maybe society in general.

You should read Tristan Harris' post here. It'll take you about 12 minutes.

SEE ALSO: 23 things you had no idea you could do in Snapchat

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NOW WATCH: Kylie Jenner directed an amazing 44-part Snapchat movie

Snapchat raised $1.81 billion in a new funding round

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evan spiegel

(Reuters) - Messaging app Snapchat Inc has raised $1.81 billion in an equity offering, indicating strong investor interest in the company despite concerns that it is struggling to attract advertisers.

Snapchat did not disclose its valuation in the latest round of funding in its SEC filing on Thursday.

However, technology website TechCrunch reported on Monday, citing sources, that the company could be valued at about $20 billion.

On Thursday, TechCrunch published a Snapchat presentation deck it says was leaked to the publication by a source who was approached to invest.

The deck shows Snapchat's revenues for 2015 were $59 million. That falls a long way below the $100 million for 2015 the Financial Times reported it was projecting back in October.

However, Snapchat projects full-year revenue of between $250 million and $350 million in 2016, according to the leaked document. For 2017, it expects revenue to rise to $500 million to $1 billion.

The company has recently been buoyed by the popularity of its premium Sponsored Lenses advertising format, which cost between $100,000 and $750,000. Some 30 million snaps every day are now decorated with Lenses.

The leaked deck also reveals Snapchat had 110 million daily active users in December 2015.

Investors in this round included General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price, Lone Pine and Fidelity, among others, TechCrunch reported on Thursday, citing sources.

Snapchat declined to comment.

(Reporting by Lara O'Reilly, Business Insider, Anya George Tharakan, Reuters in Bengaluru.)

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Here's why investors are throwing money at Snapchat

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Snapchat raised an additional $1.81 billion in funding, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

That means the messaging app has raised over $2.6 billion since its founding in 2011. That's a lot of money, given Snapchat only generated $59 million in revenue last year, according to TechCrunch.

One reason why investors are throwing money at Snapchat may be due to its robust daily active user growth. This chart by Statista, based on numbers reported by TechCrunch, shows Snapchat hit 110 million daily active users by December 2015. That's a whopping 50%-plus year-over-year growth every quarter for at least the past two years. 

20160526_Snapchat_Users

 

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's mobile surrender

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Snapchat quietly added an IPO specialist to its board

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Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel

Snapchat quietly added a seasoned IPO specialist to its board last year, the latest sign that the fast-growing messaging app is preparing for a public-market debut even as it raises huge sums of money from private investors.

Snapchat listed Stan Meresman as its board member for the first time in a regulatory filing on Thursday. Meresman wasn't listed in any of Snapchat's previous SEC filings.

On his personal website, Meresman describes himself as a financial expert who "advises CEOs & CFOs on preparing to become a public reporting company, IPO process, operating as a public company, and scaling the company for rapid growth."

Meresman notes on his website that he has guided four companies through their successful IPOs — LinkedIn, Zynga, Riverbed Technology, and Polycom — and he served as the CFO at chipmaker Cypress Semiconductor during its IPO.

Meresman, who serves on the boards of LinkedIn and Palo Alto Networks, joined Snapchat's board in July 2015, according to his LinkedIn page.

Snapchat's representative wasn't immediately available for comment.

The company closed a massive $1.81 billion round of funding on Thursday, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The funding was part of a long-term effort that, according to the file, began in February 2015. No valuation was given, though the company was valued at $16 billion in previous fundraising rounds, according to media reports.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has been clear about the company's IPO ambitions in the past, though he has been tight-lipped about any time frame. In an appearance at the Recode conference in May 2015, Spiegel said that "we need to IPO" and said the company has a plan to do so.

Meresman appears to be a key part of that plan.

Other members of Snapchat's board listed in Thursday's filing include Spiegel, cofounder Robert Murphy, venture capitalist Mitch Lasky, Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, and Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles. 

SEE ALSO: Snapchat raised $1.81 billion in a new funding round

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NOW WATCH: A college student declared her love on Snapchat and captivated the whole campus

Snapchat's share price did not increase from last year in latest fundraising round

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evan spiegel snapchat

The price of Snapchat's shares were flat compared to last year in a recent fundraising round, according to a report in The Information.

Snapchat raised $1.81 billion in funding, the company disclosed in a filing on Thursday. Media reports pegged the company's valuation in the new round as ranging between $18 billlion and $22 billion. 

That would be a nice increase from the $16 billion valuation that the company fetched in its previous round of funding in March 2016.

But according to The Information, which cited two anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the price per share that investors paid for Snapchat equity in the latest round was the same as in the $16 billion valuation round.

Snapchat's total valuation in the current round rose to between $17 billion and $18 billion, according to the report. But that was only because the company issued more shares, rather than due to an increase in Snapchat's share price. 

Snapchat declined to comment.

Snapchat is one of the most popular mobile messaging apps. The company appears to be preparing for an initial public offering, even as it raises vast sums of money, and has quietly added an IPO expert to its board of directors, Business Insider reported earlier on Thursday.

You can read the full report from The Information here.

 

SEE ALSO: Snapchat quietly added an IPO specialist to its board

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Understanding these emojis will turn you into a Snapchat pro

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One of Snapchat's many quirks is the list of emojis it seems to randomly place next to your friends' names.

You know, these:

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It turns out that these emojis, which range from baby face to grimace, aren't random at all. They can actually tell you a lot about your relationships on Snapchat.

Here's what they mean:

  • 💛  Gold Heart: Congrats, you are best friends with this person on Snapchat. You both send the most snaps to each other.
  • Red Heart: You both have been each other's best friend on Snapchat for at least two weeks.
  • 💕  Pink Hearts: Things are getting serious. You both have been each other's best friend on Snapchat for at least two months.
  • 😬  Grimace: This one is a little sneaky. It means that you share a best friend with the someone. So their best friend is the same as your best friend.
  • 😊  Smile: This means that the person is one of the people you message on Snapchat most frequently. But they're not your best friend.
  • 😎  Sunglasses: If you see sunglasses next to someone's name, you share a close friend on Snapchat with this person. It usually means that you're running in the same friend group.
  • 😏  Smirk: This indicates a one-way relationship, and you're the taker. This person sends you enough snaps to make you one of their best friends, but you don't send them many snaps back.
  • 🔥  Fire: Ah, the infamous "Snapstreak." This "appears next to the numbers of days that you and a friend have snapped each other," according to Snapchat. "If you AND your friend don't both send a Snap within 24 hours, you will lose your Snapstreaks."
  • ⌛️  Hourglass:This is a warning that you're about to lose a "Snapstreak" with someone.
  • 👶  Baby: Congrats, you just became Snapchat friends with this person.
  • 🎂  Birthday Cake: It's this person's birthday on Snapchat.

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NOW WATCH: A college student declared her love on Snapchat and captivated the whole campus

How 2 Snapchatters took their followers up the face of Mount Everest

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Snapchat: It can help you build your brand, flirt with your crush — or document your trip to the top of Mount Everest.

Climbing partners Cory Richards and Adrian Ballinger chronicled their journey to the peak of the 29,029-foot mountain via their Snapchat account EverestNoFilter, allowing people around the world to live through their journey vicariously.

Snap1

The Snapchat series included breathtaking views but also documented the harsh and sometimes painful health conditions the two faced while attempting one of the sport's most treacherous undertakings.

To use Snapchat from this remote location, the two connected to Wi-Fi using solar-powered, satellite internet systems, which required them to lug around a bunch of batteries and other necessary equipment, totaling 16 pounds — which, especially in Everest conditions, is a lot to manage.

In the end, only Richards summited, and, in a cruel twist for his devoted followers, he lost service toward the peak when his phone could no longer handle the climate conditions.

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"I think it was kind of a classic reminder of where we were and how much power that place had," Ballinger said of the last leg of the ascent. Though he had conquered Everest before, the lack of oxygen had him slurring his words, and he was advised to turn back about 2,000 feet from the peak. 

But neither that, nor the blackout upon reaching the peak can take away from the history both men just made. They climbed Mt. Everest — and they took the entire world with them.

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Almost 10 million Brits use Snapchat every day

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evan spiegel snapchat

Snapchat is a smash hit in Britain.

The ephemeral messaging app now has almost 10 million daily active users in the United Kingdom, the company confirmed on Tuesday. 

The audience figure comes alongside the news that it has signed a "multiyear" deal with Wimbledon to create Live Stories — collections of user-submitted photos and videos — of sports events at the iconic tennis venue. 

The user figures were first reported by The Financial Times.

Snapchat says that the UK is its second-largest market in the world. And — perhaps surprisingly, given its reputation as an app beloved by teens — more than 70% of these British users are older than 18.  

The app has come a long way since its launch in 2011. Initially derided as a gimmick or a sexting app, it has since become one of the dominant social media players, with more than 100 million daily global users and established publishers like Vice and the Daily Mail lining up to get on its Snapchat Discover platform.

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How to block specific people from seeing your Snapchat Story

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Snapchat HQ logo

If your boss, family, or ex follows you on Snapchat, sharing certain personal moments on the app can feel awkward.

Never fear though, because you can easily block certain people from viewing your Story. And they won't even know that they've been blocked.

Here's how to do it.

 

 

First, open up Snapchat and tap the white ghost at the top of the main screen.

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Next, hit the gear symbol at the top right, which is where your settings are located.



Under the menu called "Who Can ... " you can control your Story's privacy settings. Click "View My Story."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Snapchat is about to change part of its app to make it look more like Instagram

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Snapchat Discover

Snapchat is expected to introduce a redesigned section of its app as soon as next week, according to reports.

The Discover tab, where publishers like BuzzFeed and CNN share content, will look more like Instagram's visually rich feed, according to VentureBeat and Digiday.

The media outlets that Snapchat has chosen to appear in Discover can currently only advertise their channels with small icons that show their logos.

With the new version of Discover, the likes of Vice and Cosmopolitan will have larger, magazine-like tiles "that could give them more ways to show off their content" in the app, according to Digiday. Snapchat will also introduce new Discover partners alongside the redesign, the site notes.

VentureBeat reported that the redesign may be released as soon as Tuesday, June 7. Snapchat declined to comment on the reported changes to Discover.

Discover currently occupies prime real estate in Snapchat's app above Live Stories and Stories created by friends. Snapchat doesn't break down exactly how many people use Discover every day vs. its messaging and Story features. The company told Tech Insider in May that 60 million people use Discover every month.

TechCrunch recently reported that Snapchat had "110 million daily active users as of December 2015." The company has publicly touted over 100 million daily users since last year.

SEE ALSO: Snapchat could now be worth $20 billion

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NOW WATCH: A college student declared her love on Snapchat and captivated the whole campus


More people now use Snapchat on a daily basis than Twitter (TWTR)

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evan spiegel snapchat

Some 150 million people use Snapchat on a daily basis, according to a Bloomberg report that cites sources familiar with the matter.

By comparison, Twitter has less than 140 million daily active users, according to an average of analysts' estimates surveyed by Bloomberg.

It has taken Twitter 10 years to rack up those numbers — but Snapchat has amassed its audience over a period of just four years.

Bloomberg's sources say Snapchat had 110 million daily active users in December, suggesting the platform's daily active users have boomed in the last six months.

The apparent surge in Snapchat's user numbers would coincide with the rollout of several new Snapchat features, including face swap, the dog ears filter, and a range of colourful stickers that can be placed onto photos.

Twitter was once the biggest social network after Facebook, but rival platforms like Whatsapp, Instagram, and Messenger have overtaken it. The company's most recent earnings showed that it had 310 million active users each month — but there was no breakdown on how many of those check in each day.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly described Snapchat's messaging as "very modern" at Recode's technology conference on Wednesday.

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Mark Cuban explains why downloading Snapchat is a huge mistake

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Billionaire entrepreneur
 and "Shark Tank" cohost Mark Cuban explains why apps like Snapchat are not secure and how any message you send can come back to haunt you.

Snapchat's response:

Not clear on what the context is around [Mark Cuban's statement], but when we say it's "deletion by default" it is because it's closer to regular conversations. You can always record a conversation, but ordinarily you wouldn't. Snapchat is more about the social norms and expectation than secrecy.

Cuban is the creator of Cyber Dust, a private messaging app. His user name is "+blogmaverick."

Produced by Joe Avella and Graham Flanagan

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Snapchat secretly bought a 3D selfie startup

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evan spiegel

Snapchat quietly purchased a 3D selfie startup called Seene, according to a new report from TechCrunch's Romain Dillet and Natasha Lomas, who cite anonymous sources.

The acquisition happened "a couple of months ago," according to the report. No price was disclosed, although TechCrunch characterized it as "low."

Seene's technology utilizes your smartphone camera to create a 3D image of whatever you point it at. The result is a still 3D photograph image that moves when you tilt your phone or swipe with your finger — something many Snapchat users would love.

While the most obvious use could be Snapchat creating a 3D selfie lens, the company does have a research lab and it's rumored that it could be working on some virtual reality play or a Google Glass competitor as well.

Snapchat could not be immediately reached for comment.

SEE ALSO: Snapchat to lease part of Santa Monica Airport, including 8 hangars

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NOW WATCH: Mark Cuban explains why downloading Snapchat is a huge mistake

Twitter still beats Snapchat despite trailing in daily users (TWTR)

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Twitter MAUThis story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Digital Media Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Reports have surfaced that Snapchat's daily active user base (DAU) is now greater than Twitter's.

Snapchat now reportedly has 150 million DAU, compared to Twitter's 140 million. This is especially impressive considering that Snapchat has only existed for four years, while Twitter has been around for 10.

Furthermore, Snapchat's daily user base grew by an estimated 36% since December 2015, at which time reports said it had 110 million DAU. Twitter does not officially break out its DAU numbers, but its monthly active user (MAU) numbers have been stagnating in the last year. In the first quarter of 2016, Twitter's user base grew just 3% YoY.

Despite this, Twitter still has two significant advantages over Snapchat.

First, Twitter's users engage with content, which is critical for publishers. Approximately 59% of Twitter users go to the social media platform for news content, according to new research from Pew. Users also engage with brands' content through Twitter. Coca-Cola, for example, has three million followers.

Snapchat users, on the other hand, primarily use the service for private communication with their friends and family. In fact, 71% of users only access the app in order to send photo and video chats to their peers, according to a Defy Media and variety survey.

Twitter is also currently more appealing to advertisers, as one-third of brands advertise on the social media platform at least once a month, according to a recent SocialFresh survey of global brands. This compares to just 4% of brands advertising on Snapchat.

Furthermore, 64% of brands said Twitter led to a meaningful return on investment, compared to just 2% for Snapchat. However, Snapchat has recently made some changes to its ad business such as new formats, analytics, and targeting capabilities that should stimulate brand interest sooner rather than later.

If Snapchat is able to connect users with its media content features, such as Live Stories and Discover, and pull in more advertisers, then it could eat away at the last advantages Twitter still holds.

Snapchat is expanding its ad platform at a time when dollars are increasingly flowing from traditional ads to digital, as strong growth in mobile, video, and social spending continue to change the face of the US media market.

Over the next five years, marketers will especially embrace mobile. Mobile will drive up spending on video, search, display, and social, and propel the migration of ad dollars away from traditional media, including newspapers and magazines.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report that forecasts spending trends for the major digital ad formats — including search, display, and video — and mobile vs. desktop. It also examines trajectories for social ad spending and programmatic ad buying, which cut across digital formats. Finally, the report looks at how spending on traditional media formats will grow or contract over the next five years, as digital, and particularly mobile, rises.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

  • Mobile will be the fastest-growing advertising channel and buoy spending on each of the digital formats. US mobile ad revenue will rise by a 26.5% CAGR through of 2020.
  • Digital video ad spending is rising faster than search and display. US digital video ad revenue will rise by a CAGR of 21.9% through 2020.
  • Mobile search will overtake desktop search ad revenue by 2019. Mobile search ad spend will rise by a 25.2% CAGR, while desktop search ad revenue will decline during the same period.
  • Mobile display ads, including banners, rich media, and sponsorships, will overtake desktop display-related spending even earlier, in 2017.
  • Social media ads, which cut across display and video, are seeing fast adoption. US social media ad revenue, which includes video and display ads, will grow by a CAGR of 14.9% through 2020.
  • The rapid embrace of programmatic ad-buying tools is fueling a dramatic uptick in the share of digital ad spending coming through programmatic channels. Programmatic transactions will be a majority of total US digital ad spend this year.
  • Unlike digital, traditional ad revenue will remain flat overall through 2020. Total traditional ad revenue will rise by a CAGR of just 0.4% between 2015 and 2020.

In full, the report:

  • Forecasts ad revenue for emerging digital ad channels and formats like mobile, video, social and programmatic over the next five years
  • Explores why ad revenue is flowing from desktop to mobile
  • Examines the stagnation of traditional advertising channels like TV, magazines, and newspapers

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

  1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
  2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the digital media advertising.

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Here's what your favorite apps looked like when they first launched

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first version of uber

When Uber debuted its new logo earlier this year, many were quick to make snarky comments about the clunky design.

Well, Uber's first logo was far worse. In fact, the whole app looked entirely different.

The first iteration of the Uber app, then known as UberCab, featured a bright red logo and less refined interface. Though it looks strikingly different from today's version, the basics were all there: enter your credit card info and location, and then call up a car.

That got us thinking: What did other popular apps look like when they first launched?

Here are more vintage versions of your favorite apps and websites.

SEE ALSO: The app explosion is over

Snapchat

The original version of the photo messaging app doesn't look all that different from the version you're familiar with today (though Evan Spiegel and co. wisely dropped the blue touches and cartoonish icons in later versions). 



Instagram

Instagram didn't undergo any dramatic changes from its original 2011 version until the photo sharing app unveiled a new logo last month.



Tinder

The first-ever version of Tinder lacked its most famous functionality: the ability to swipe right or left on potential suitors. Tinder co-founder and chief strategy officer Jonathan Badeen said at VentureBeat's Mobile Summit earlier this year that the functionality was inspired by a deck of cards. 



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