Snapchat lives and dies by how popular it is with the teens. Despite the fact it does surprisingly well when it comes to deflecting propaganda, the real value is kids goofing around and sending each other pictures. So, a recent redesign of the app, and the backlash, has meant that analysts are looking closely at just how said teens are using Snapchat. Which is why one poorly timed tweet means Snapchat’s corporate owner, Snap, just lost over a billion dollars on the stock market.
That poorly timed tweet came yesterday, courtesy of Kylie Jenner:
sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.
— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018
The results are, according to Bloomberg, a deep, deep dive in the company’s stock price:
The Snapchat parent’s shares sank as much as 7.2 percent Thursday, wiping out $1.3 billion in market value, on the heels of [the tweet.] 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.
To be fair, the exact power of Jenner as a spokeswoman and trend leader may be a wee bit up in the air, along with the idea of the influencer economy in general. Remember the Pepsi debacle? Still, it demonstrates just how tricky it still is to be a social media company, especially one at the whims of the stock market. Maybe they can ask Facebook and Twitter how to deal with it, since both spent most of their youths as a company getting yelled at over the exact same thing.
(via Bloomberg)