Snapchat’s chief executive has confirmed that he plans to take the company public rather than sell it to a larger firm.
“We need to IPO,” Evan Spiegel, 24, told the Code conference in California, referring to the launch of an initial public offering. “We have a plan to do that.”
Spiegel claims almost 100 million people a day use the video-messaging app, and its latest funding round valued it at a sky-high $15bn (£10bn) – five times as much as the $3bn Spiegel turned down in 2013 when Facebook tried to buy it. And its valuation could rise as high as $19bn, according to recent reports.
However, Spiegel did not reveal any detail about its IPO plans and shot down questions about Snapchat’s future.
He did admit that the existence of a tech bubble is something that is included in the company’s plans.
“People are making riskier investments,” Spiegel said. “I think there will be a correction. As for when, we don’t know, but we factor that into our plans. If I knew exactly when, I could make a lot of money.”
It is the first time Spiegel has said publicly what he had previously communicated privately: that the tech industry is overdue a correction.
“At some point there won’t be any momentum investors left buying at higher prices, and the market begins to tumble,” he wrote in emails in 2013 that were obtained by the Wall Street Journal last year. “May be 10-20% correction or something more significant, especially in tech stocks.”
Facebook shares have risen almost 30% in the past 12 months to just under $80, while Apple stock is almost 50% higher at close to $130.
