Snap Inc. is an American technology company, founded on September 16, 2011, by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown based in Santa Monica, California.

The company was founded on September 16, 2011, by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy upon the relaunch of the photo sharing app Picaboo as Snapchat.

[13] By January 2014, the company had refused offers of acquisition, including overtures from Mark Zuckerberg, with Spiegel commenting that "trading that for some short-term gain isn’t very interesting.

[44] In October 2017, the company announced that it had formed a joint venture with NBCUniversal to produce content for Snap's platforms, and that it had signed Duplass Brothers Productions as its first partner.

It allows users to utilize Snapchat filters via PC webcams in video chat and live streaming services such as Skype, Twitch, YouTube, and Zoom.

[48] On 5 February 2024, Snap Inc. announced it would lay off 10% of its global workforce, approximately 500 employees, partly to "promote in-person collaboration", marking another significant reduction following a 20% staff cut in 2022.

Specifically, the AR ad lens is one of the unique features of Snapchat, which allows advertisers to attract their target audience with various innovative lenses.

Users can also use these lenses to change their faces, appearance, and even surroundings based on their preferences, and share those visual images or videos within their social networks.

[66][67] Investors included General Catalyst, Kingdom Holding Company, SV Angel, Yahoo!, NBCUniversal, and Tencent.

It also reported that after the predicted March 2017 IPO, the two Snap co-founders would hold over "70% of the voting power" in the company and own around 45% of the total stock.

[73] Beyond the two founders, the two biggest shareholders for the planned early 2017 Snap IPO were Benchmark and Lightspeed Venture Partners, both prior investors and venture-capital firms from Silicon Valley.

Brown said that he had once been the chief marketing officer for the initial selfie app used to launch Snapchat, offering evidence of contacts with publications such as Cosmopolitan.

He also claimed that he had come up with the original concept, which he had ultimately called Picaboo, and that he had created the mascot logo for the product while working with Spiegel to promote and market the idea.

Months later, Spiegel dismissed the lawsuit as an example of opportunists who seek out rapidly successful companies in an attempt "to also profit from the hard work of others.

The press release published by Snapchat's communication department quoted Spiegel:"We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter in a manner that is satisfactory to Mr. Brown and the Company.

"[91]The Federal Trade Commission alleged that the company had exaggerated to the public the degree to which mobile app images and photos could actually be made to disappear.

Following a settlement in 2014, Snapchat was not fined, but the app service agreed to have its claims and policies monitored by an independent party for a period of 20 years.

"[95][96][97] Due to the redesign and other market factors in 2018, such as the growth of Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status,[98] Daily Active Users (DAU) of the app only rose 2% from Q4 2017.

The update stated the possibility of exploring options to establish cloud services in Saudi, where it confirmed storing Snapchat data.

The firms claimed that placing the personal information of millions of Snapchat users there would put it under the jurisdiction of the government of Saudi Arabia, jeopardizing the security of the data.

[105][106][107] In June 2024, Snap paid $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the California Civil Rights Department alleging that the company discriminated against female employees with respect to pay and promotions, failed to prevent workplace sexual harassment, and retaliated against women who complained.