Timeline of Snapchat

This is a timeline of Snapchat, a photo messaging application used for impermanent (self-deleting) photos, developed by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, and the eponymous company.

Full timeline

Year Month and date Event type Details
2011 April Creation Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel floats the idea as a final project for a product design class at Stanford University. His classmates reportedly balk at the idea of impermanent photos.[1]
2011 July Creation Snapchat first launches from Spiegel's father living room under the name Picaboo, as an iOS-only app.[1][2][3]
2012 March/April Funding Barry Eggers, a managing director at the venture capital firm Lightspeed Ventures, learns from his teenage daughter that the three most popular apps among her friends are Angry Birds, Instagram, and Snapchat. Liew, Eggers' partner at the firm, pursues Snapchat and agrees to invest $485,000 in the company.[4][5]
2012 May 12 Userbase Snapchat is processing about 25 images a second.[4][5]
2012 October 29 Userbase Snapchat says that users are sharing about 20 million images a day, or about 231 per second. The userbase is about 10 million, and over a billion photos have been shared through the app.[5]
2012 October 29 Product Snapchat launches an Android app.[5][6]
2012 December 12 Funding Snapchat is reported to be raising north of $10 million at a $70 million valuation. Funders appear to include Benchmark Capital, one of the funders of Instagram.[7][8]
2012 December 14 Product Snapchat releases video sharing and begins prototyping monetization features.[9]
2012 December 21 Competition Social networking company Facebook launches Poke, an iOS app for sending expiring text, photos, and videos. It is widely viewed as a direct competitor to Snapchat.[10][11][12]
2013 February 8 Funding Snapchat raises a $13.5 million Series A led by Benchmark Capital's Mitch Lasky, with a post-money valuation between $60 million and $70 million.[13] This is the same as the funding round rumored on December 12, 2012.[14]
2013 February 8 Userbase Snapchat users are now sending over 60 million snaps a day, or about 700 snaps a second.[14]
2013 February 21 Product Snapchat launches video sharing on its Android app after ten days of quiet beta testing.[15]
2013 February 27 Legal Snapchat is sued by Reginald Brown, a Stanford graduate student who used to be friends with Spiegel and Murphy. Brown claims that he originally came up with the idea behind Snapchat as well as the ghost logo, back when the product was still called Picaboo, but that Spiegel and Murphy changed passwords to shut him out of the servers. Snapchat calls the lawsuit "devoid of merit."[16]
2013 April 16 Userbase At the Dive into Mobile conference, Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel says that users now share 150 million images per day, or about 1700 per second.[17] On the same day, a post on the Snapchat blog notes that the company is facing spam problems.[18][19]
2013 June 22 Funding Snapchat raises a $80 million Series B ($60 million for the company and $20 million as a secondary offering) at a valuation of about $800 million. The round is led by Institutional Venture Partners, and earlier investors Benchmark Capital and Lightspeed Ventures also invest. Other investors included General Catalyst Partners and SV Angel.[20][21][22]
2013 July 1 Legal Documents related to Reginald Brown's lawsuit against Snapchat are released. The documents demonstrate Brown's important early role while the product was being developed, and are intended to bolster the case that Brown is eligible for a 1/3 stake in the company.[23]
2013 August 7 Competition Facebook starts allowing people to send Instagrams with its Messenger product, a move that is widely seen as a competitive response to Snapchat.[24]
2013 September 9 Product Snapchat releases Snapchat Micro, an app for the Galaxy Gear smartwatch.[25]
2013 September 9 Userbase Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel reports that Snapchat users are now sharing 350 million photographs a day (about 4000 per second).[26]
2013 October 3 Product Snapchat updates its app to include the option to create Snapchat Stories, a type of sharing that allows users to build chains of shared content that can be viewed an unlimited number of times over a 24-hour period.[27]
2013 November 13 Potential acquisition The Wall Street Journal reports that Snapchat spurned a $3 billion acquisition offer from social networking company Facebook. Neither Snapchat nor Facebook offer comment.[28]
2013 November 19 Userbase Snapchat users are now sharing 400 million snaps a day (about 4500 per second), more than Facebook.[29]
2013 December 11 Funding Snapchat raises $50 million in Series C funding from Coatue Management.[30][31][32]
2013 December 20 Product Snapchat rolls out a change that allows users to replay one snap a day, thereby sacrificing some of its ephemerality.[33]
2013-2014 December 27 - January 9 Security A security flaw in Snapchat's Find Friends feature leads to 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers being leaked.[34][35] Snapchat promises to work on beefing up security quickly.[36] On January 9, Snapchat rolls out an update that allows people to opt out of the Find Friends feature.[37]
2014 January 21 Security Snapchat introduces Snap-tchas (a wordplay on CAPTCHAs) to deter spam and improve security, but hackers find workarounds within hours.[38]
2014 February 7 Security Security researcher Jamie Sanchez discovers a vulnerability in Snapchat whereby hackers can freeze a person's phone by sending the phone a lot of snaps.[39][40]
2014 February 10, 11 Security Snapchat is hacked to send people spam pictures of fruit smoothies.[41][42]
2014 May 1 Product Snapchat adds ephemeral text chat and video calling.[43]
2014 May 28 People Embarrassing emails sent by Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel from many years before he started Snapchat are leaked.[44]
2014 June 17 Product Snapchat launches collaborative timelines based on events.[45][46][47]
2014 August 29 Product Snapchat updates its app, adding a "Live" section that allows people to follow events live.[48][49][50]
2014 September 4 Product Snapchat begins using push notifications for Snapchat Stories.[51]
2014 September 29 Legal Snapchat settles its lawsuit from Reginald Brown (alleged estranged co-founder) with undisclosed terms.[52]
2014 October 10 Security Hundreds of thousands of Snapchat photos are leaked. Snapchat does not appear to be at fault: the leak seems to be from SnapSaved, a service that allows people to receive snaps and archives all the snaps it receives, and Snapchat explicitly states in its terms of use that users should not connect Snapchat with third-party applications.[53][54][55]
2014 October 17 Product, monetization Snapchat announces on its blog that users will start receiving ads from brands under the Recent Updates section of its blog.[56][57]
2014 November 17 Product Snapchat announces Snapcash, a tool allowing people to send each other money easily through the app.[58][59][60]
2014 November 23 Product, monetization Snapchat includes a sponsored story from Samsung and the AMAs in its Our Story section. Although Snapchat has previously included topical stories related to the World Cup and Super Bowl in the Our Stories section, this is the first placement paid for by a brand.[61]
2014 December 16 Product, acquisitions by Snapchat Leaked emails from Sony Pictures show that Snapchat is planning a music feature, acquired QR scan company scan.me for $50 million, and acquired Vergence Eyeglass Cam for $15 million.[62]
2014 December 22 Product, accessibility Microsoft removes third-party Snapchat apps from the Windows Phone store at Snapchat's request. Since Snapchat has no official app, this means Windows Phone users can no longer use Snapchat.[63]
2014 December 31 Funding Snapchat announces that it has raised $485 million from 23 investors at a valuation of at least $10 billion.[64][65]
2015 January 27 Product Snapchat launches Discover, a daily feed comprising content from brands like ESPN, CNN, Vice, and Warner Music, National Geographic, Yahoo News, and others.[66][67]
2015 February 10 Product, safety Snapchat launches the Snapchat Safety Center, a section of its website with practical tips of how to stay safe while using Snapchat. The Safety Center launch is in collaboration with three nonprofits focused on Internet safety: ConnectSafely, iKeepSafe, and UK Safer Internet Center.[68][69]
2015 March Funding Rumors of Snapchat's next $500 million funding round, at a valuation of about $15 billion, are circulated. Potential investors include Alibaba ($200 million) and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.[70][71]
2015 May 26 Userbase 100 Million Active Users Currently on Snapchat. Snapchat users are sending snaps at a rate over 400 million a day [72]
2015 July 1 Product Snapchat changes its interface to no longer require people to tap and hold to watch. They just need to tap to the relevant video. This move is interpreted as being an adaptation to the increasing length of video content being shared, that makes holding down more and more cumbersome. A number of other accompanying changes are made, including allowing people to have a profile GIF: they can take five photos of themselves and an animated GIF will be created by juxtaposing the five images.[73]
2015 August 12 Product Snapchat launches a new mode called Travel Mode in its iOS and Android apps, intended for people who are traveling and do not want to use too much mobile data. In this mode, Snaps, Stories, and Discovery content are not automatically loaded when the user opens the app, but are only loaded when the user taps on the piece of content.[74]
2015 August 18 Advertising An advocacy group, Secure Now, is running an ad on Snapchat opposing the recent nuclear deal with Iran. The ad targets Senator Ben Cardin who agrees with the current deal and urges users to, “Tell Senator Cardin: No to the bad Iran deal!”. The ad uses a filter in which friends can share it with each other.[75][76]
2015 October 12 Product Snapchat gets rid of its 15-person team running the "Snapchat Channel" (its original content) and shut the product down.[77][78]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Colao, J.J. (November 27, 2012). "Snapchat: The Biggest No-Revenue Mobile App Since Instagram". Forbes. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
  2. ↑ Murphy, Alexandria (October 29, 2012). "Snapchat a growing trend". University of Delaware Review. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Picaboo: How to send naughty photos without getting caught". shinyshiny.tv. September 16, 2011.
  4. 1 2 Gallagher, Billy (May 12, 2012). "No, Snapchat Isn’t About Sexting, Says Co-Founder Evan Spiegel". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Gallagher, Billy (October 29, 2012). "You Know What's Cool? A Billion Snapchats: App Sees Over 20 Million Photos Shared Per Day, Releases On Android". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
  6. ↑ del Castillo, Michael (October 29, 2012). "The app with self-destructing messages launches on Android". Upstart Business Journal. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
  7. ↑ Malik, Om (December 12, 2012). "SnapChat is getting funded. By Instagram backer Benchmark". GigaOm. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  8. ↑ Eldon, Eric (December 12, 2012). "Sources: Snapchat Raising "North Of $10M" At Around $70M Valuation, Led By Benchmark’s Mitch Lasky". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  9. ↑ Gallagher, Billy (December 14, 2012). "Snapchat Releases Video Sharing, Is Prototyping Monetization Features (Oh, And It’s Still Not For Sexting)". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  10. ↑ Constine, Josh (December 21, 2012). "Facebook Launches Snapchat Competitor "Poke", An iOS App For Sending Expiring Text, Photos, And Videos". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  11. ↑ Geron, Tomio (December 21, 2012). "Facebook Launches Poke Messaging App, A Snapchat Competitor". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  12. ↑ Crook, Jordan (December 21, 2012). "Facebook Poke Vs. Snapchat: What’s The Difference?". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  13. ↑ Wortham, Jenna (February 8, 2013). "A Growing App Lets You See It, Then You Don’t". New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  14. 1 2 Gallagher, Billy (February 8, 2013). "Snapchat Raises $13.5M Series A Led By Benchmark, Now Sees 60M Snaps Sent Per Day". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  15. ↑ Crook, Jordan (February 21, 2013). "Ten Days After Private Beta Launch, Snapchat Officially Brings Video To Android". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  16. ↑ Crook, Jordan (February 27, 2013). "Stanford Grad Files Lawsuit Claiming He Came Up With Snapchat, Snapchat Calls Lawsuit "Devoid Of Merit"". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  17. ↑ Velazco, Chris (April 16, 2013). "Snapchat Now Sees 150M Images Shared Each Day, But Questions Of Profitability Still Linger". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Snap Spam (Ew.)". Snapchat. April 16, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  19. ↑ Crook, Jordan (April 16, 2013). "Snapchat Experiences Spammy Growing Pains After Passing 150M Snaps Sent Per Day". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  20. ↑ Tsotsis, Alexia (June 22, 2013). "Snapchat Snaps Up A $80M Series B Led By IVP At An $800M Valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  21. ↑ Tiku, Nitasha (June 25, 2013). "Source: Snapchat Cofounders Unloaded Personal Stock for $20 M.". ValleyWag. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  22. ↑ Isaac, Mike (June 24, 2013). "Snapchat Closes $60 Million Round Led by IVP, Now at 200 Million Daily Snaps". AllThingsD. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  23. ↑ Gallagher, Billy (July 1, 2013). "Snapchat’s Spiegel Admits Brown "Came Up With The Idea For Disappearing Picture Messages" In New Court Documents". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Facebook Fights Snapchat By Letting You Send Instagrams With Messenger". August 7, 2013. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  25. ↑ Crook, Jordan (September 9, 2013). "Snapchat Releases Snapchat Micro, An App For The Galaxy Gear Smartwatch". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  26. ↑ Gallagher, Billy (September 9, 2013). "Snapchat Now Sees 350M Photos Shared Daily, Up From 200M In June". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  27. ↑ Etherington, Darrell (October 3, 2013). "Snapchat Gets Its Own Timeline With Snapchat Stories, 24-Hour Photo & Video Tales". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  28. ↑ Rusli, Evelyn; MacMillan, Douglas (November 13, 2013). "Snapchat Spurned $3 Billion Acquisition Offer from Facebook". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  29. ↑ Crook, Jordan (November 19, 2013). "Snapchat Sees More Daily Photos Than Facebook". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  30. ↑ Kelly, Meghan (December 11, 2013). "Snapchat reveals Coatue Management is the investor in its $50M funding". VentureBeat. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  31. ↑ Colao, J. J. (December 11, 2013). "Hedge Fund Invests $50M Into Snapchat". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  32. ↑ Crook, Jordan (December 11, 2013). "Snapchat Raises $50 Million In Series C From Coatue Management". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  33. ↑ "Snapchat Sacrifices Ephemerality With New Replay Feature". TechCrunch. December 20, 2013. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  34. ↑ Shu, Catherine (December 31, 2013). "Confirmed: Snapchat Hack Not A Hoax, 4.6M Usernames And Numbers Published". TechCrunch.
  35. ↑ "SnapChat Hack". www.snaphack.co. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  36. ↑ "Find Friends Abuse". TechCrunch. January 2, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  37. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (January 9, 2014). "Snapchat Finally Says Sorry For December Data Breach, Updates Android & iOS Apps With Find Friends Opt-Out". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  38. ↑ Constine, Josh (January 21, 2014). "Snapchat Makes You "Find The Ghosts" To Keep Hackers From Stealing Your Phone Number [Update: But It Fails]". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  39. ↑ Rodriguez, Salvador (February 7, 2014). "Hackers can use Snapchat to disable iPhones, researcher says". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  40. ↑ Crook, Jordan (February 7, 2014). "Newly Discovered Snapchat Weakness Could Allow Hackers To Crash Your Phone". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  41. ↑ Brown, Joe (February 11, 2014). "A Snapchat Hack Is Sending People Pictures of Smoothies". Wired Magazine. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  42. ↑ Shu, Catherine (February 11, 2014). "Snapchat Hacked By Fruit Smoothie Enthusiast". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  43. ↑ Dillet, Romain (May 1, 2014). "Snapchat Adds Ephemeral Text Chat And Video Calls". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  44. ↑ Crook, Jordan (May 28, 2014). "Confirmed: Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel Is Kind Of An Ass". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  45. ↑ "Introducing Our Story". Snapchat. June 17, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  46. ↑ Crook, Jordan (June 17, 2014). "Snapchat Launches Collaborative Timelines Based On Events". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  47. ↑ Wagner, Kurt (June 17, 2014). "Snapchat Rolls Out Group-Sharing Feature for Concerts, Live Events". Mashable. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  48. ↑ "Snapchat Steps On Twitter’s Toes, Lets You Follow Remote Events Live". TechCrunch. August 29, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  49. ↑ Franzen, Carl (August 29, 2014). "Snapchat lets you watch and create group videos of live events with 'Our Story'". The Verge. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  50. ↑ Steele, Billy (August 29, 2014). "Snapchat's photo-sharing live feed is finally ready for the masses". Engadget. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  51. ↑ Constine, Josh (September 4, 2014). "Snapchat Pushes You To Watch Friends’ Stories". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  52. ↑ Crook, Jordan (September 9, 2014). "Snapchat Finally Settles Lawsuit With Ousted Co-Founder Reggie Brown". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  53. ↑ Cook, James (October 10, 2014). "Hundreds Of Thousands Of Teens Have Had Their Snapchat Photos And Videos Intercepted By Hackers". Business Insider. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  54. ↑ Mott, Nathaniel (October 13, 2014). "SnapSaved tries to defend itself after allowing thousands of private images to be made public". PandoDaily. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  55. ↑ Crook, Jordan (October 13, 2014). "Snapsaved Takes Responsibility For Latest Snapchat Leak". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  56. ↑ "Advertising on Snapchat". Snapchat. October 17, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  57. ↑ Crook, Jordan (October 18, 2014). "Snapchat Ads Are Probably Cooler Than Facebook’s, But Still Not Cool". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  58. ↑ Constine, Josh (November 17, 2014). "Snapchat Now Lets You Send Money To Friends Through Snapcash Deal With Square Cash". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  59. ↑ "Snapcash Could Bring Real Identity And Ad Targeting Data To Snapchat". TechCrunch. November 17, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  60. ↑ Holmes, David (November 20, 2014). "Is Snapcash a tool for the porn industry in disguise?". PandoDaily. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  61. ↑ Constine, Josh (November 23, 2014). "Snapchat’s Newest Money Maker Is A Sponsored Our Story For Samsung And The AMAs". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  62. ↑ Constine, Josh (December 16, 2014). "Snapchat Plans Music Feature, Acquired QR Scan.me For $50M And Vergence Eyeglass Cam For $15M,". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  63. ↑ Mott, Nathaniel (December 22, 2014). "Snapchat cracks down on third-party apps to bolster user security". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  64. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid; Tsotsis, Alexia (December 31, 2014). "Snapchat Has Raised $485 Million More From 23 Investors, At Valuation Of At Least $10B". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  65. ↑ Carney, Michael (December 31, 2014). "Snapchat celebrates the New Year early with $485.6M in new funding". PandoDaily. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  66. ↑ "Introducing Discover". Snapchat. January 27, 2015. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  67. ↑ Crook, Jordan (January 27, 2015). "Snapchat Launches Discover". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  68. ↑ "Safety Center". Snapchat. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  69. ↑ Russell, Jon (February 10, 2015). "Snapchat Partners With Three Non-Profits To Launch A ‘Safety Center’". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  70. ↑ Saitto, Serena (March 11, 2015). "Snapchat Is Raising Money From Alibaba at a $15 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  71. ↑ Russell, Jon (March 11, 2015). "Alibaba, Prince Alwaleed Go In On Snapchat’s $500M Round". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  72. ↑ Smith, Craig (August 13, 2015). "By the numbers 60 Amazing Snapchat Statisitcs". DMR. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
  73. ↑ Constine, Josh (July 1, 2015). "Snapchat Solicits Longer Content By Ditching Tap-And-Hold-To-Watch". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
  74. ↑ "Snapchat Adds Data-Saving Mode To Win Users On A Budget". TechCrunch. August 10, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
  75. ↑ "Tap to View". Snapchat. July 1, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
  76. ↑ Ho, Catherine (August 18, 2015). "New Snapchat ad opposing Iran deal targets Ben Cardin". Washington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
  77. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (October 12, 2015). "Snapchat To Shut Down Snap Channel, Laying Off Team, Changing Content Plans". Deadline. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
  78. ↑ Olanoff, Drew (October 12, 2015). "Snapchat Gives Up On Original Content, Axes ‘Snapchat Channel’". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
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