[notahacker]

Most people are sceptical for the simple reason that the social networks that shed most of their user base long before ever threatening to make a reasonable profit actually had far more lock-in. If Snapchat's user base - a demographic not exactly noted for their long attention spans - gets bored or sick of ads once Snapchat actually manage to sell them in significant numbers, they're not leaving anything behind when they download the next flavour of the month.

The terms attached to this probably make their chance of selling out to Facebook for ~$20bn slim too.

[lotso]

Couldn't you have said the same thing about early Facebook?

[notahacker]

Early Facebook had the facility to get in touch (or stalk!) people I had no contact details for provided I knew their name, and check out upcoming party details, not mention a photographic record of my university life complete with comments and status boosting likes. Facebook didn't need to remain cool to be relevant and useful, and I logged in far more often than someone sent me an actual message from the service - still do a decade on.

Snapchat is a messaging app which distinguishes itself from the other messaging apps users also have installed on their phones by the fact it doesn't preserve any past interactions. Much like when I stopped bothering to log into MSN Messenger because people sent me messages in other ways, it dies in the eyes of its users once the daily updates stop, or even more quickly if the daily updates become near-exclusively advertising of the unwanted kind

[tedunangst]

Perhaps, although snapchat is deliberately oriented towards a lack of history. I could move my messaging off facebook easily enough, but photo albums of vacations less so.