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Snapchat rejects US$3 billion Facebook offer

The photo-sharing app Snapchat has reportedly rejected a takeover bid from Facebook, turning down US$3 billion in cash.

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Lexy Savvides Principal Video Producer
Lexy is an on-air presenter and award-winning producer who covers consumer tech, including the latest smartphones, wearables and emerging trends like assistive robotics. She's won two Gold Telly Awards for her video series Beta Test. Prior to her career at CNET, she was a magazine editor, radio announcer and DJ. Lexy is based in San Francisco.
Expertise Wearables, smartwatches, mobile phones, photography, health tech, assistive robotics Credentials
  • Webby Award honoree, 2x Gold Telly Award winner
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Lexy Savvides

A US$3 billion offer from social network giant Facebook has not been enough to sway Snapchat to sell.

(Credit: Snapchat)

Snapchat is an app based around fleeting photo messages that expire momentarily after they have been received. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the two-year-old company has said no to an acquisition offer from Facebook, even though Snapchat is currently seeking more capital to reach a US$3.6 billion valuation.

Facebook's offer to Snapchat is three times the amount initially offered to fellow photo-sharing app Instagram. That deal eventually settled for US$715 million.

Every day, Snapchat users send 350 million photos through the app. This puts it on par with Facebook, which itself processes upwards of 350 million photos every day.

Though Snapchat currently generates zero revenue via the app, Facebook is said to be interested because the service is so heavily smartphone based. It is no secret that Facebook is generating more and more revenue from mobile advertising: the company has started to roll out ads in Instagram to users in the United States.

Evan Spiegel, Snapchat's CEO and co-founder, is unlikely to look at a takeover bid until early next year, according to the Journal.