http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/11/15/snapchat-and-the-path-to-the-personal/ – Snapchat and the Path to the personal by Forbes

A very successful mobile app Snapchat was released in September 2013 by a group of Stanford students. It’s a social app used to exchange images with short commentaries which can be viewed by a recipient for a limited amount of time chosen by a sender (from 3 to 10 seconds) and get deleted from both devices and servers of the company after they were opened. Now it’s in the top 10 apps in Android Google Play and Apple AppStore. It became one of the most successful mobile apps of all time. Many youngsters have this app on their smartphones now.

The whole world’s attention was caught by Snapchat when its owners rejected Facebook’s buyout offer of $3B. Then, they rejected Google’s offer of $4B. But why is this app so special?

Firstly, its users don’t want their information to be stored anywhere which makes them feel more free in communication with their friends. Secondly, Snapchat follows current trend of replacement of written to visual communication.

And the final question: “Will Snapchat replace Facebook?” I think, no. Not in the nearest  future. These 2 social networks were created for different audience. Facebook is still more flexible in terms of types of data which can be sent while Snapchat is restricted to photos with really short comments.

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