A Single Tweet From Kylie Jenner Was Enough to Wipe Out $1.3 Billion of Snapchat’s Market Value

ByJayme Kennedy

Say what you will about Kylie Jenner, but that girl has some pull in the social media world. So much, in fact, that a single Kylie Jenner Snapchat tweet sent the market value of the company plummeting to the tune of $1.3 billion. That’s some serious influence!

Image: Giphy

The Kylie Jenner Snapchat tweet came on the heels of some massive blow-back against the latest update. People are mad, real mad, and parent company Snap Inc. has been less than sympathetic to the needs of it’s users.

The social media app rolled out a redesign a few weeks ago, and the response has been terrible. People HATE it. I don’t use Snapchat myself (I have an account so my kids can play with filters, but that’s about it), so I’m not entirely sure what changes were made. But apparently, the redesign completely changed the interface and usability of the popular app. Users hate it so much, in fact, that a petition to change it back garnered over a million signatures. Snapchat responded to the petition and basically said, meh, you’ll get over it!

For the casual user, hating a redesign is a minor inconvenience, at most. But for someone like Kylie, whose snaps are watched by millions and millions of people, and who makes quite a bit of money off her social media presence, it’s a bit more serious.

And when someone like that hates the app? Well, that translates into dollars lost.

Now, there’s no way to know for sure if this one tweet was the reason behind Snap Inc.’s market value dropping $1.3 billion. But, when users start to revolt, that means fewer views. Fewer views mean less money. And Wall Street has been playing close attention. The company’s stock was downgraded from neutral to sell after backlash about the redesign continued to grow. In the social media world, where opinions spread like wildfire, user satisfaction is incredibly important.

There’s no word yet on how Snap Inc. plans to respond to the growing dissatisfaction with their flagship app. Or if they plan to address it at all! But I have to say, when your biggest users start to bail, it may be time to reconsider your design.

(Image: iStock/vivalapenler)

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