SnapChat photo app in Ridgewood nude photos case not making money, yet
Last updated: Saturday March 16, 2013, 10:29 AM
BY MARY DIDUCH
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Snapchat, a free smart-phone application that sends photos that disappear 10 seconds after they are opened, is gaining followers and funding, though it generates no revenue and on occasion could be used inappropriately.
That happened recently at Ridgewood High School, where nude photos of two female students were sent through Snapchat then captured and posted publicly on another smart-phone app, Instagram, making permanent what was supposed to be a temporary “snap.”
Snapchat, which has offices in Los Angeles, sends a notice to the sender if a screen shot of a snap is grabbed, and its parental guide urges parents to discuss the legal and social ramifications of sending explicit images.
The free Snapchat app, which without advertising on its interface doesn’t bring in any revenue, was created in 2011 by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy and has raised $14 million in funding. Its primary backer is Benchmark Capital, a Silicon Valley firm that initially financed Instagram.
With little fanfare or marketing, Snapchat built a following among mostly underage users through word of mouth. By October 2012, users of the app had shared more than a billion snaps, or more than 20 million a day. By December, that number had climbed to 50 million, according to Snapchat’s blog.
Spiegel and Murphy have said the lure of risqué photo opportunities is not what is generating interest in the app.