No, Kylie Jenner didn't wipe out $1.3 billion of Snap's market value
On Thursday, the business news site Bloomberg published a story under a shocking headline: "In one tweet, Kylie Jenner wiped out $1.3 billion of Snap's market value."
The story was pegged to a 7 percent decline in Snap Inc.'s stock price, and it would have you believe that one tweet — just 88 characters — was able to destroy a significant portion of the company's market valuation.
For reference, here's the tweet in question:
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Yes, Kylie Jenner, the 20-year-old reality TV star, is one of the most popular Snapchat users. And yes, the Kardashian family is incredibly powerful. But let's not crown Kylie the queen of Snap's stock decline despite how fun this image is:
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Stocks fluctuate, and sure, sometimes they fluctuate dramatically. For example, Snap's stock got a huge boost after a strong earnings report and call with analysts in early February.
“Our work during 2017 is proof that we aren’t afraid to make big changes for the long-term success of our business," Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in his prepared remarks, in part referring to the redesign as well as the growth of its advertising business and team restructuring.
But no, Kylie Jenner did not ruin that stock value all on her own. Snap's stock had been trading down over the last week. By market close on Thursday, it was neutral and then began trading up.
As Bloomberg later cited in its poorly headlined story, Citigroup analyst Mark May downgraded Snap's stock earlier this week and cited the negative reviews of Snapchat's redesign. Indeed, other influencers like YouTuber "MKBHD" and celebrity Chrissy Teigen expressed frustration earlier this month. Millions of users signed a Change.org petition. They also helped make a fake tweet about a way to get old design back viral.
But all this talk of the redesign wasn't the only news about Snap Inc. this week. On Thursday, the company released its 10-K, its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In that document, Snap shared the many, many risks it faces as a business. Those include its reliance on Google's Cloud infrastructure and, of course, the ongoing competition from larger companies such as Facebook. The fact it lacks a central headquarters and instead has offices spread through Los Angeles and elsewhere also poses a threat to employee morale.
Not everything is a sad over at Snap Inc. As BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield shared, Snapchat's daily active users are up.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
A Snap spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they had any feedback for Kylie. According to her Twitter feed, she still loves Snapchat:
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Topics Snapchat Social Media Celebrities
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
