Kylie loses interest, Snapchat sheds $1.3B
washington — Snap Inc.’s flagship platform has lost some lustre, at least according to one socialmedia influencer in the Kardashian-Jenner clan.
Shares of the Snapchat parent company sank 6.1 per cent on Thursday, wiping out $1.3 billion in market value, on the heels of a tweet on Wednesday from Kylie Jenner, who said she doesn’t open the app anymore. Whether it’s the demands of her newfound motherhood, or the recent app redesign, the testament drew similar replies from her 24.5 million followers. Wall Street analysts too have begun to notice, citing recent user engagement trends noticed since the platform’s redesign. Jenner’s tweet was followed late on Thursday by one from Maybelline New York, asking its followers if it should stay on the Snapchat platform. The beauty-product brand owned by Paris-based L’Oreal SA said its “Snapchat views have dropped dramatically,” but it still wanted to connect with its followers.
Citigroup analyst Mark May downgraded the stock to sell from neutral earlier this week after seeing a “significant jump” in negative reviews of the app’s redesign. He expects the reviews could cause user engagement to fall, hurting financial results.
Meanwhile, as the app takes criticism, Chief Executive Evan Spiegel may become one of the highest paid executives in the US. After the company’s IPO last March, Spiegel got a $636.6 million stock grant that will be payable through 2020. — Bloomberg