Snapchat parent Snap Inc. is currently faced with the wrath of Indian populace on social media, as well as the Google Play Store. But, the effect of CEO Evan Spiegel’s alleged remark made over the company’s expansion plans has now seeped into its share prices on the stock exchange as well. It went public just last month and is currently seen as the hottest technology IPO in about three years.
The share price for the camera company, as Snap Inc. now defines itself, were down 1.25 percent on Monday, driving the share price under $20 once again. The share price was down 25 cents and closed at $19.94, which is still about 17 percent up from the company’s $17 IPO price. In after hour trading, the share prices still continue to be rather flat.
This has also resulted in the company to drop down to its lowest level as compared to its massive $3.4 billion listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Such is the scenario when the company has been scoring ‘buy’ ratings and target price as high as $30 from various investment groups and analysts.
The company is currently finding itself in this sticky situation because of the ongoing social media hullaballoo caused after Spiegel’s alleged statements about not being keen on expanding to poor countries, such as India and Spain, was made public. According to an ongoing lawsuit with former employee Anthony Pampliano, the CEO has allegedly asserted in an internal team meeting in 2015 that his ephemeral messaging app was meant only for rich audiences. He is uninterested in prioritizing growth in poor nations, according to legal documents made public earlier last week. The documents also allege the company of manipulating its growth metrics.
These comments angered the Indian masses who flocked their social media channels and hashtags such as — #uninstallsnapchat and #boycottsnapchat were trending on Twitter over the weekend. Though no one even considered checking whether the comments are true or not, they just moved ahead with spewing hate and abuse against the co-founder on social media. This also involved reviewing the application on both the Play Store and App Store with one-star reviews. The Indian masses crossed every hurdle to even post hate on Spiegel’s fiancee Miranda Kerr’s Instagram account, telling her to keep his man in check.
But, Snapchat has debunked all remarks in an official statement sent to The Tech Portal. It states,
This is ridiculous. Obviously, Snapchat is for everyone! It’s available worldwide to download for free.
And, call it ill fate or sheer coincidence, Snapdeal, the Indian e-commerce giant which is already faced with turmoil over funding and acquisition speculations was caught amid this cross-firing. The netizens of the country were too quick to judge the remarks and since Snapdeal shares a name similar to the messaging giant, they gave its app the same treatment.
Over the weekend, reports of several people actually uninstalling Snapdeal’s app and leaving poor reviews on its app Store page were peddling the social channels. Yup, it was actually happening. The statements left these people actually mentioned Snapchat, but they were still uninstalling Snapdeal. You ask, why? Because the Indian populace is actually too feeble-minded and confused Snapdeal of being a sister company of Snap Inc. — all because of sharing a part of the name with it.
