NEW DELHI: Snapchat Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Evan Spiegel told that “the app is only for rich people and don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain”.
The revelation is made by ex-employee Anthony Pompliano as saying that in September 2015, the company CEO made this statement in a meeting. “This app is only for rich people,” Spiegel said, as told by Pompliano. “I don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.”
Indians did not take the comment lightly and took to social media to lash out at the statement from the CEO. As the ratings of the app dropped, the criticism of the CEO and the app increased.
“First of all, I didn’t even want to give any freakin’ star to this app. Evan (CEO of Snapchat) shows how stupid he is by saying this. I bet 3/4th of his company is run by Indian employees. If he didn’t want to expand it to poor countries, then why is this app free? Why didn’t he put any charges on it?” a user wrote on App Store, condemning the CEO.
Some users wrote, “Poor India & Spain need better than Snapchat”, “Good bye, My Snapchat Account and Snap Inc. You’ll be product of gone by era and derision”, and “Poor Evan Spiegel”.
The app was also trolled on Twitter. #boycottsnapchat became the most trending hashtag on Twitter overnight.
“I haven’t seen any Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc Tweets yet. Thanks @Snapchat for Uniting us,” a user tweeted.
Get ready to see the unity of poor Indians in uninstalling the App.#snapchatceo u will regret this. #Snapchat #snapchatindia pic.twitter.com/6f4VBnHW6d
— Dhruv khanna (@guyindelhi) April 16, 2017
This guy is high on weed 😂😂 #boycottsnapchat pic.twitter.com/ZEWpudx26M
— voh 4 log (@voh4log) April 16, 2017
#boycott #Snapchat and let's make the #snapchat CEO A POor CEO !! 😂 #UNINSTALLED
— ABHISHEK SWAMI (@abhishekswami27) April 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/SarcasticSheeya/status/853459642181197824
A day after news broke out regarding Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel’s disinterest in expanding the business to “poor countries” like India, the rating of the popular app dropped to a “single star” from an apparent “five star” on the App Store.
According to the app info on App Store, the “Customer Ratings” of the current version of the app was “single star” (based on 6,099 ratings) and all versions rating was “one and half star” (based on 9,527 ratings) as on Sunday morning.
The rating for the app on Android Play Store was “four star” (based on 11,932,996 ratings).
IANS inputs