Snap Ninja

Snapchat is one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world.

The site has multiple miillions of active monthly users with billions of “snaps” (photos and videos) generated every day.

How did Snapchat grow so large and in such a short period of time?

Snapchat was founded in 2011 by Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy, all students at Stanford University.

Reportedly, Brown came up with the idea of a social media app that enabled users to post photos and videos that disappeared from the site after a few moments.

Brown reportedly approached Spiegel with the idea, and both agreed on the notion of a social media platform modeled on disappearing content was a good idea. The duo then approached Bobby Murphy to write the code used to build the app.

In July, 2011, the co-founders released “Picaboo”, the precursor to Snapchat. Right afterward, Spiegel and Murphy forced Brown out of the company, and relaunched the company as Snapchat in September, 2011.

Both Stanford University students were only in their junior year in college at the time. As for Brown, he settled with the two co-founders for $157 million in September, 2014. He was also officially credited as being a co-founder of Snapchat.

In this from the trenches book, Social Media Expert Sean Gartner reveals how to understand and make the most of this intriguing social media platform.