What teens want Snapchat to spend its Wall Street fortune on
Snapchat rocked Wall Street last week with a filing for its initial public offering that revealed tons of detail about the secretive company.
But for most of the app's users, it was just a regular day on Snapchat.
That's just fine by Snap Inc. — the name for the company behind Snapchat — which doesn't want its users to worry about things like "going public" or its Wall Street name $SNAP.
"You can search Snapchat or Spectacles for the fun stuff and leave Snap Inc. for the Wall Street crowd :)," the company wrote in a blog post when it changed its official name to Snap Inc. ahead of its IPO.
The teens and early adults who make up Snapchat's core user base, however, aren't entirely taking that to heart. In conversations with Snapchat users, we found they do have opinions on Snap Inc.'s potential.
Plenty of its young users follow the company, and even ones who don't still wonder about what Snap is up to when they hear about its moves on Wall Street. Snapchat users at a clothing store in Manhattan, over text and, yes, on Snapchat, told us what they think about Snap's IPO.
Maya Kanj, 14
Boston
Snap score: 257,028
Uses Snapchat at least 3 hours per day
Sarah Khadraoui, 16
New Jersey
Snap Score: 28,627
Used to open Snapchat 10 times a day, now trying to use it less
"Yeah, I would [buy stock in Snapchat] since Snapchat is popular these days."
"They should probably use the money to pay for upcoming ideas they want to put in their app. They could probably add more funny filters and probably add a viral Snap page, where you can see Snaps that go viral."
Katie Parcelli, 20
Nashville, Tennessee
Snap score: 25,489
Goes on Snapchat 3-5 times a day
Oliver Reddy, 15
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Snap score: 5,149
Uses Snapchat "probably" every day, "I love it"
Tyler Winther, 21
Washington, D.C.
Snap score: 59,836
Goes on Snapchat 5 times a day without getting Snaps, 15 times when getting Snaps
"[The IPO] has been brought up in some of my business classes as well as my internship in PR and marketing. I think it could be cool to see what kind of different stuff the company comes up with."
"Overall good: More capital = expansion and innovation. Bad: Possible change in how the company engages users, more obstacles because of stakeholders."
Richard, 19
Australia
Uses Snapchat occasionally
"I'd buy stock in Snapchat. It's a globally known phenomenon. A lot of people use it and it has potential to grow. It's a safe investment, but not quite like Facebook. It's still new in what it can do."
Daniel Greenberg, 19
New York, N.Y.
Snap score: 6,100
Opens Snapchat about 10 times per day
Katie, 16
New York, N.Y.
"Can't count" how often she uses Snapchat
"Yeah, I think it's worth it [to buy stock in Snapchat]. People snap every day. It would be a good investment."
Khalilah, 16
New York, N.Y.
Snap Score: 6,927
Opens Snapchat 6 times a day
Prathmesh Jadhav, 18
Mumbai, India
Snap score: 5,241
Uses Snapchat every day
Topics Snapchat
Emma Hinchliffe is a business reporter at Mashable. Before joining Mashable, she covered business and metro news at the Houston Chronicle.
