Name a bigger act of hubris than turning down $3 billion when you’re a 23-year-old college dropout. Imagine a more withering comment than saying such an offer “isn’t very interesting.” Then you’ll begin to understand why all eyes are on Snapchat cofounder Evan Spiegel this week, as his company’s expected to file an initial public offering for multinational company, Snap Inc., that’s been breathlessly evaluated as being worth up to $25 billion.

The IPO has been expected for some time, as Snap reportedly locked in Morgan Stanley for financing last September, and quietly filed paperwork to get the process rolling in November. And of course, Spiegel hasn’t been shy about the company’s future: “We need to IPO; we have a plan to do that,” he said at a tech conference in 2015.

So if it’s so obvious, why does it matter? Well, because such a decision could completely shake up the stock market—and maybe even symbolize how that tech bubble (and the American economy) is doing.

It could also reveal just what this company is and wants to be. You know Snapchat as the little ghost app, allowing you to take six-second videos of your shoes that disappear. If you’re over 40, you might assume it’s a vehicle for sexting. If you’re under 25, it might be your primary means of communication with your friend group. But Snap Inc is trying to be more than that, introducing products such as Spectacles and acquiring companies specializing in augmented reality and mobile search. The Security and Exchange Commission’s S-1 form will require Spiegel is declare what kind of company Snap is—tech or media, messaging or content—and how it plans to make money.

Snapchat has found plenty of ways to monetize, as you may have noticed through the ads that run between friends’ videos, or the sponsored events that gave partners their own filters and summarized stories. Just yesterday, the company introduced a new ad platform to allow brands to innovate and find eyes within the app. Their revenue was reported around $367 million in 2016, but is that enough for investors—and more importantly, is it enough to compete with Facebook, whose Instagram Stories has adopted several of the particulars (filters, disappearing content, stickers) that made Snapchat so attractive?

Since Spiegel turned down that $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook in 2013, Instagram has introduced multiple new products that directly compete with Snapchat. It’s been blatant but effective, or “good enough and convenient,” as TechCrunch described the user experience. Facebook and Instagram (not to mention tech giants like Google and Amazon) know how to innovate constantly. People aren’t sure that Snap will be able to keep up.

And then there’s Spiegel himself. While his rival Mark Zuckerberg hunkers down in a hoodie in Menlo Park, California, Spiegel is perceived to be a showier type: gallivanting around the world with his former Victoria’s Secret model girlfriend (now fiancée), Miranda Kerr. Who will get the last laugh? Only time—and the stock exchange—will tell.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Snapchat’s Impending IPO appeared first on Vogue.

Source: Vogue