
Meanwhile, Snapdeal suffers for what Snapchat CEO did or did not say.
A day after Snapchat started trending on Indian social media for all the wrong reasons, the company strongly denied the charges made against CEO Evan Spiegel, terming them “ridiculous”. “Those words were written by a disgruntled former employee. We are grateful for our Snapchat community in India and around the world,” a spokesperson for the U.S. based company said in a statement to FactorDaily.
“Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It’s available worldwide to download for free,” the company representative said.
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel is not known to many people in India, compared to other social media bigwigs. But out of nowhere, on Saturday he was trending on all social platforms in India.
All the commotion revolves around a comment he did or did not make. US-based news website Variety quoted Snapchat’s ex-employee Anthony Pompliano as saying that Spiegel told him (in September 2015) that “the app is only for rich people. I don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.”
Pompliano’s interview tells the story of his brief, three-week tenure at the company, during which he says he learned that the company had exaggerated its user data and that top executives were “completely misinformed” about key metrics.
Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It’s available worldwide to download for free” — Snapchat
Meanwhile, in an absurd twist, Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal, which has no connection whatsoever with Snapchat, found itself needlessly dragged into the #boycottsnapchat controversy on Sunday with many users uninstalling the Snapdeal app instead — obviously a result of the apps’ similar names. Many users have also shared negative reviews of Snapdeal on Google Play Store.