The slender physique and fixed smile , Evan Spiegel arrested last summer studying in Stanford product to devote himself to his end of year project design: an application for smartphones to exchange decorated pictures of text disappearing after a few seconds. Snapchat on all messages self-destruct after a set time and if the screenshot, the sender is notified .
"I think our application makes communication a little more human and natural ," he boasts site TechCrunch. " On the internet in general you remove what looks bad for your image or embarrassing ," he says in the " Telegraph" . " Snapchat rather is modeled on the conversation where what is said is ephemeral . We believe that the removal should always be done by default. "
While all digital actions leave an indelible mark , Evan Spiegel benefits of its application to promote the right to be forgotten : " People live with this huge burden of having to manage the digital equivalent of their personality ," says - like in "Forbes" .
Inspired by the Anthony Weiner scandal
Evan Spiegel had the idea to create Snapchat in April 2011 to " share selfies awkward and funny with ( her ) friends." He teamed up with his friend Bobby Murphy , a graduate of Mathematics and Computer Science at Stanford last year. The pair met in 2009 and founded a fraternity "Future Freshman " (" future graduate " ) , an online guide for college orientation .
After hearing hilarious stories about the urgency to untag some photos Facebook before job interviews , we thought there must be a better solution , "says Evan 's blog Snapchat .
He told TechCrunch that the application was also partly inspired by the Anthony Weiner scandal , elected New York who resigned after sending pictures of her naked on Twitter .
However challenged by a Reggie Brown , a former fraternity Evan and Bobby, who says that the pair stole his idea Snapchat release. A judicial investigation was opened .
"The most stupid thing I 've ever seen "
When submitting the project to their class , Evan and Bobby laughed by their comrades who see only one way to send naughty pictures . " All our people and investors saw said : ' This is the stupidest thing I 've ever seen ,'" Evan fun with TechCrunch.
After spending the summer trying to attract (unsuccessfully ) users on their first version Snapchat , something strange happens: the application went viral in high schools of Los Angeles. The students used to pass notes in class and communicate .
Snapchat is now funded solely by the father of Evan . But after a moment , "My father did not want to pay for the pictures disappear ," he says . Investment proposals start pouring .
In early 2012, the young entrepreneur receives a Facebook message Jeremy Liew of the venture capital company Lightspeed Venture Partners . This he expressed his interest after hearing about the success of the application by the daughter of one of his colleagues . Snapchat 485,000 dollars and up . Will pay the bills , pay the hosting servers , and hire a community manager and two new engineers.
The following year, in February 2013, the venture capital company Benchmark Capital launches a new fundraising reports that 13.5 million , valuing the company between 60 and 70 million.
" We love to be independent "
Snapchat now has more than 350 million photos exchanged every month. "Google , Twitter , Facebook, Yelp and even all experienced a very rapid success, but nothing like this ," the "New York Times" .
The start- up - which does not yet have an economic model - attracts giants. First Facebook makes the first bid at $ 1 billion . Denied. The social networking giant mounts auction 3 billion. Offer refused .
The "Wall Street Journal " Chinese whispers that Tencent , specializing in online distribution and has the WeChat application, would be up to four billion dollars. An offer would have also made Google, according to Gawker . Also denied. Evan Spiegel has demonstrated its ability to say "no."
We love to be independent , " he quips provocative BBC .
However, to raise the stakes resting on a teenage audience , the start -up takes a long-term risk . As highlighted in the "New York Times ", " teens are very finicky when they use a service. Snapchat has experienced rapid growth due to teens, but it could fall just as fast [ if ] another new application appears coolest " .
Ability to say "no " than " LA Weekly " says Evan Spiegel of the " privileged " life. Indeed, the American weekly published documents his parents' divorce that points the young Evan grew up in a house with two million dollars in Los Angeles, and throughout his high school he drove a luxury SUV . A privileged childhood he recognized a half- words during a conference . " I'm a boy , white and educated I've always been very , very lucky Life is unfair . ".
Meanwhile, despite the success of his application, he continues to live with his father. He even throws in AP : " I would stay with him until he put me out. "
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