Snap's Spiegel Defends Redesign, Says Celebs Aren't Your Friends
Snap’s CEO says celebrities are not your friends while separating celebrity and user content in the app.
(Bloomberg) -- Snap Inc. Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel said a controversial redesign of the Snapchat app is here to stay.
The company recently separated content posted by users’ personal friends from media and celebrity content in the application to make it easier to use. The change sparked an uproar, especially among younger users, who have been tweeting their pleas to the company and signing online petitions to reverse the decision.
Spiegel, speaking Thursday at a Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, said the new format will take some getting used to, and that some of the complaints validate the choices Snap made.
“People are saying, ‘I used to feel like this celebrity was my friend and now they’re not my friend anymore,”’ Spiegel said. “Exactly. They’re not your friend.”
Snapchat previously mixed in friend updates with any public figure a user was following, much like Facebook and Instagram do. The separation will allow internet stars to build a following and make money in some cases from their content on the mobile app for disappearing photo messages. Snap said this week that for the first time it will let digital content creators, known as influencers, see data about how popular their posts are and who makes up their audience.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in San Francisco at sfrier1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack
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