I had no idea what Snapchat actually was until a few days ago. I had heard the name, but thought it sounded like something that would shortly go the way of Chatroulette.
Apparently, however, its owners and investors are so confident in its $4 billion valuation that they felt comfortable turning down a $3 billion cash buyout offer from Facebook. This made me realize several things:
- I may never understand how Silicon Valley determines “value;”
- Even a system specifically designed to delete pictures as a privacy measure is beatable;
- If it’s popular with teenagers, they’re gonna use it for sex somehow (cf. xkcd); and
- Sooner or later, someone’s going to use it for revenge porn.
I don’t always hate it when I’m right, but sometimes I really do. Sometimes I really, really do.
