Snapchat

Snapchat has earned the favor of the coveted teen demographic, but can it turn engagement into money? The Wall Street Journal reports that the startup is in talks to launch Snapchat Discovery, a service that would partner with media companies and brands to serve video content and ads. Sources told the paper that Snapchat is Continue Reading →

There’s no official Snapchat app for Windows Phone right now, but don’t worry — Microsoft is offering an equivalent that might do in a pinch. The new WindUp app covers very similar ground, letting you send media and messages that disappear after a set amount of time; you’re supposed to “wind up” your friends by Continue Reading →

Snapchat is reportedly in talks with Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba for a financing round that would value the company at a whopping $10 billion, according to a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources. At this point, nothing should shock the public about messaging APP valuations. With WhatsApp going to Facebook for $19 billion and Facebook reportedly Continue Reading →

Snappay? Snapchat may try to monetize by processing peer-to-peer payments, money transfers, or online payments, according to two trademarks it filed earlier this week. Owned by Snapchat and filed on July 11th by an attorney at Cooley, which is known to be Snapchat’s law firm, the trademarks could keep anyone else from entering the same Continue Reading →

It’s a smartphone app that sends photos and videos that self-destruct after they’re viewed. It lets you personalize these ephemeral messages with your own little doodles. And it goes by a one-word name that begins with an “S” and ends with a “T.” Any guesses? No, it’s not Snapchat. It’s Slingshot, the new app from Continue Reading →

Facebook is trying once again to catch Snapchat’s wave. The social-networking behemoth is launching on Tuesday a new app called Slingshot that allows people to share short-lived photos and videos with one another. This concept, which caught fire through competitors like Snapchat, encourages people to share less carefully edited photos and videos by promising they’ll Continue Reading →

Facebook has been promising that it would “shatter itself into pieces” in order to better compete on mobile by breaking up the main Facebook app into mini-apps focused on specific features. On Monday, it made good on these previously stated intentions with a new photo and video-sharing app called Slingshot, now available in select markets. Continue Reading →

Facebook is taking Snapchat very seriously after its failed attempt to purchase the video and picture messaging app for $3 billion last year. Mark Zuckerberg is personally supervising an internal effort to build a competing “ephemeral messaging” app, according to a new report from the Financial Times. Details are slim on the video-messaging app, but, Continue Reading →

The results are in on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s fourth annual “Who Has Your Back” report on the tech sector’s customer privacy practices. The highest ratings—companies given six stars—were handed to Apple, Credo Mobile, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sonic, Twitter, and Yahoo. The report, released Thursday, reviewed 26 companies in all, rating them on everything Continue Reading →

The “ephemeral” messaging app Snapchat has settled as of Thursday with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that its messages are not actually ephemeral. The FTC’s complaint alleged that there are a number of ways Snapchat messages can be saved, so the company’s claim that they “disappear forever” was disingenuous. “There is value in the Continue Reading →