Social media app Snapchat has taken the next step towards floating on the New York Stock Exchange, in what’s expected to be one of the biggest IPOs in US history.
Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, is expected to be valued at around $20 – 25 billion, and is likely to float in March.
The app, founded by two students at Stanford University six years ago, has seen an unprecedented growth in users. Within months it had 40,000 users, and it now has around 158 million users daily.
The company is also well-known for rebuffing a takeover offer from Facebook, remaining one of the few highly-used social media apps not under the Facebook umbrella.
Snapchat is expected to float on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SNAP within weeks, with its IPO prospectus describing it as a “camera company” rather than communications or internet. The company are working on several other projects, including their $130 Spectacles which allow users to record video from their exact line of sight.
The company has made it clear to investors that its advertising business is growing quickly. It reported $58.7 million in revenue for 2015, and grew that to $404.5 million in 2016. However with that strong revenue growth its losses have also grown, which may make it a tough sell. Snapchat lost $372.9 million in 2015 and $514.6 million this past year.
Its S-1 filing even states: “We have incurred operating losses in the past, expect to incur operating losses in the future, and may never achieve or maintain profitability.”