Hey, remember when we all thought Snapchat was completely mad for turning down Facebook’s US$3-billion buyout offer? Yeah, that’s starting to seem a lot less crazy now, with the ethereal messaging app’s latest funding round seeing it valued at US$10-billion.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, VC firm Kleiner Perkins committed to investing in the company at this valuation back in May, while another investor is also taking part in this round, which is reportedly yet to close.
What makes Snapchat’s valuation so astonishing is that it doesn’t actually have any way of making money just yet. That could however change in the very near future.
One possibility would see it getting into the peer-to-peer payments game, allowing users to send money to each other for a small fee or giving retailers the opportunity to undertake small flash sales.
Another possibility reported on by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year is that it’ll release a product called Snapchat Discovery within the next few months. It’ll apparently display articles, videos, and ads to users of the app.
As The Verge notes, this would give existing media outlets the option to create content specifically for the platform and give them a chance to capture the massive market of 18-29 year olds who use Snapchat.
Whatever route Snapchat takes, this latest round of funding means that it’ll have more space than most to figure out how to bring in revenue without having to compromise the user experience in the way Facebook and Twitter have had to.
