Snapchat rejects 3 billion dollar takeover behind-the-scenes: imitate grandson

13 months ago, Mark Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, made a contact with the founder of Evan Spigger (Evan Spiegel), Snapchat, a "read-burn" photo-sharing application. Zuckerberg sent an invitation to Spiegel's personal e-mail address inviting the latter to meet Menlo. The 23-Year-old Spiegel, one of the most arrogant tech-industry "prodigies", responded to Zuckerberg's invitation to the "ancestors": I'm glad to meet you, but only if you come to see me. So Zuckerberg flew to Spiegel's hometown of Los Angeles and arranged a private apartment for a secret meeting between the two men. When Spiegel with another co-founder of Snapchat and Bobby Melfi (Bobby Murphy), now chief technology officer of the company, Zuckerberg had arranged a special agenda. He tried to crack down on Spiegel and Murphy's vision of Snapchat, describing the new product poke that Facebook is about to launch, a Snapchat-like "burn-after-read" photo-sharing mobile app. Zuckerberg said at the time that he would soon change the big signs erected outside Facebook's Silicon Valley park from its iconic "like" symbol to the Poke icon. Spiegel recalls: "This is basically saying: ' We will crush you into powder. After the meeting, Spiegel and Murphy immediately returned to the office and ordered a book for Snapchat's 6 employees: the Art of War. Teen users flock to Snapchat for Facebook, which has a powerful "destructive power", Snapchat represents the biggest threat that exists. Today, young Internet users have learned the lesson that when you post content on a social media site, whether it's good or bad, as long as you post it, it stays online forever. As a result, Snapchat, which has a "burn after reading" function, is attracting a flood of young people. According to Forbes magazine estimates, the total number of users currently Snapchat has reached 50 million, with an average age of 18 years. At the same time, Facebook has admitted that the number of teenage users has declined, and that the average age of users is closer to 40 years. Mr Zuckerberg has come to realize this, and that may explain why he has "scrambled tactics" against Spiegel and Murphy. When Facebook posted the poke on December 21, 2012, Zuckerberg sent an e-mail to Spiegel saying he hoped the latter would like the mobile app, and that Spiegel had written off his Facebook account before. After receiving the message, Spiegel hysterical to call Murphy, asking the latter to evaluate poke;Then Murphy responded that poke almost completely copied Snapchat. In the days that followed, something interesting happened. Poke's download of the iphone App Store climbed to the top of the list after one day, but on December 25, 2012, three days later, Snapchat a comeback and poke the top 30. Spiegel laughed: "That's like saying: ' Merry Christmas, snapchat! "This reversal of the 3 billion-dollar bid should also be interpreted as Hezachberg to contact Spiegel again last fall." Mr. Zuckerberg made a 3 billion dollar offer to buy Snapchat and pay in full cash, according to sources familiar with the story. At that time, Snapchat was only two years old, and not only has it not been able to start creating revenues, but even plans to create revenue in the future. Mr Zuckerberg's offer itself has been a myth, but even more absurd, Spiegel rejected the offer. Many executives in many companies have made a lot of business decisions over the past year, but Spiegel's decision is undoubtedly one of the most troubling and focused. According to Forbes ' estimates, Spiegel and Murphy still held about 25% of their Snapchat shares, meaning that if they agreed to Zuckerberg's offer, they would get a 750 million dollar "windfall". "I can understand why [Facebook believes] Snapchat has significant strategic value," said one prominent venture capitalist. But is Snapchat really worth 3 billion dollars? In any universe I know, it's not worth it. "Inspiration from the art of war" but for those who are familiar with the thin booklet Spiegel and Murphy bought for Snapchat employees, the root cause of this business decision is obvious. The sixth chapter of the Art of War, "the actual situation", is to attack the enemy at the spot and time when it reveals its weakness. Spiegel and Murphy thought they had found an opportunity, insisting that they should not sell Snapchat, but instead aim to subvert the entire social media industry. In particular, Snapchat has raised 50 million dollars in "war funds" last December. "In this world, only a few people have the opportunity to build a business like this. "Spiegel. "I think it's not an interesting idea to sell this company in exchange for short-term benefits," he said. "For most of the 23-year-olds, they often live with their parents, and Spiegel's so-called" short-term interests "mean 750 million of billions of dollars that are unimaginable. For Spiegel, the pursuit of long-term interests means two diametrically opposed outcomes: either he will be the next great billionaire model, or he will become a warning to young people not to be arrogant "cautionary Heng Yan”。 "Face" Spiegel 6.1 feet (about 1.86 meters) of the tall, collar-button shirt, brand-name jeans, white rubber shoes, such a Spiegel looks still a childish not to take off the yellow hair boy. At the new headquarters of Venice Beach in Snapchat, he received an interview with Forbes magazine, his first in-depth interview with a media company. Spiegel has a superb "face-changing" skills: the last moment or laugh, the next become cold eyes. His speech was filled with words such as "like" and "What do you care?" He has a highly opinionated view of politics, music and other aspects, but is unwilling to discuss the most basic CEO-related topics, such as what his ideal management team is, or what long-term vision he has for Snapchat. However, if you are patient enough, you will be able to dig out the complete "back story" from Spiegel. Then you will find that the story of Spiegel has a mystical resemblance to Zuckerberg, who is also his enemy. Like Zuckerberg, Spiegel was born in a relatively superior family, where his parents were successful lawyers and he was the eldest son of the family. Like Zuckerberg, he was a dull fellow in high school, but he found his own sanctuary in the tech world. In the six grade, he assembled his first computer, began using Photoshop in the school's computer lab, and spent the weekend at a local high school museum. "My best friend was my computer teacher then." Spiegel laughs. Ownership controversy today, the ownership of Snapchat is still a hot topic, but in terms of the company's "Genesis" ideas, all sides seem to hold the same view. Snapchat co-founder Reggy Brown (Reggie Brown) has filed a lawsuit against Spiegel, calling it the "burn after reading" concept. When he came up with this concept, he said, Spiegel was very excited and repeatedly called the idea "million dollar ideas". Spiegel admits he was excited, but did not comment on the "Million Dollar Idea". Judging from the court documents that have been exposed, Brown claimed that his two candidates had rejected his invitation when the two men sat down to find a developer. To the last two people chose Murphy, who had just graduated. At the start-up stage, the three jobs were clear: Murphy as chief technology officer, Brown as chief marketing officer, and Spiegel as chief executive. Revenue outlook in April 2012, Lightspeed Venture, a venture capital firm, provided Snapchat with 485,000 of dollars in seed financing, when the company valued Snapchat at $425 million. "That was the best moment I felt. "Spiegel said. "NoWhat can replace that moment of feeling. "Since the seed financing, Snapchat has moved three times, and now employs 35 people." Although the figure is still woefully low, it has grown considerably compared with the company's start-up. However, Snapchat now faces the question of how to start generating revenue to provide returns to investors. For now, sceptics have the upper hand, but Snapchat's board members, partner Mitch Laski (Mitch Lasky), a VC firm's benchmark Capital, Benchmark, hold different views. "When the number of active users on a website reaches 50 million, someone says: ' They haven't even started to create revenue yet. "Laski said. "But for companies that are growing so fast, it is not fair to expect them to generate revenue equally quickly." "In Laski's view, both Twitter and Facebook have experienced the same experience. So is Snapchat going to wither like MySpace, or will it be sold at the highest valuations, like broadcast.com, or will it be the industry giant that is going to be listed as the next IPO in social media? The answer to all this may be two years from now, when the 25-Year-old Spiegel will enter its own maturity, and the only thing people can do is wait and see.