SNAPCHAT - SPEED SHARING
The latest social network phenomenon is called Snapchat. The name “Snapchat” is a
combination of two words “snap”, which is a term for a photograph, and “chat”, which means to
talk. With Snapchat you send photos and videos, and you talk to your friends.
THE BIG DIFFERENCE
Sending photos and videos to your friends is not a very original idea. You can already do that on
Facebook, but Snapchat is different. On Snapchat your friends can only see the photo for 10
seconds. After that it is automatically cancelled. Why? One of the big problems with social
networks is privacy. If you put a photograph on Facebook it can be accessed by anyone. It is
effectively public property. Strangers will see it. With Snapchat, in theory, that isn’t a problem.
Some Snapchat users send obscene photos and videos.
SILICON VALLEY
Like most social networks, Snapchat was born in Silicon Valley in Northern California. Two
years ago Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy were students at Stanford University. Spiegel was a
major in product design and he and his friend developed the idea for their degree course. When
Spiegel presented it in his class the other students thought it was ridiculous! “Who wants to
send a photo that will disappear in 10 seconds?” they asked.
DAD
In the United States, students leave home in order to go to college. Spiegel came from Los
Angeles in Southern California. After he graduated from Stanford, he went back home and set
up Snapchat in the sitting room of his father’s house. This is still the company headquarters
today. Snapchat is very popular with young users. In January an 18-year-old girl called Becky
told the British newspaper The Financial Times: “We use Snapchat as a religion. We are
obsessed with it!”
GLOSSARY
THE LATEST – el ultimo
SNAP – instantánea (fotografía)
STRANGER – extraño, desconocido
MAJOR – carrera, especialidad
DEGREE COURSE – licenciatura
TO SET UP – montar, fundar
HEADQUARTERS – sede
