A piece of news caught our eye the past week. Snapchat, a new start-up with a picture-sharing mobile app, reportedly turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook. Popular with a young twentysomethings, Snapchat’s selling premise is that your snapshots are private, ephemeral bits of conversation. The snapshots you take lasts a only few seconds after your friend receives and views it. Your friend replies with a snapshot with like impermanence. The exchange mimics a real conversation where value is in the exchange.
Some contend that the pictures don’t really ‘disappear’, the app merely changes the file extension. But that’s besides the point. Analysts say the popularity of Snapchat reflect a change in behaviour, a shift from ‘instagraming’ the whole world. Whatever, the case, these are some of the most interesting, evolving times for photography and the way people place, use and engage it.
Share