Snap shares tumble 8pc following Kylie Jenner tweet

It only takes one tweet from Kylie Jenner to wipe $1.3 billion (£1 billion) off Snap’s (NYSE: SNAP) stock market value.

In one of the group’s worst trading days since going public, shares in Snap tumbled following Jenner announced she was “sooo” over the app.

“sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me … ugh this is so sad,” she tweeted on Wednesday. 

Shares plummetted almost eight percent and closed six percent down on Wall Street.

Jenner’s tweet about Snapchat came following the app’s redesign, which saw it move away from its previous distinction between “messages” and “stories”.

The redesign has not been popular and 1.2 million users have signed a petition asking the company to reconsider the change.

Snap responded to the petition and said: “We completely understand the new Snapchat has felt uncomfortable for many,” the company said. However, it added, “this new foundation is just the beginning and we will always listen closely to find new ways to make the service better for everyone”.

Before the update, chief executive Evan Spiegel said he hoped the change would address common issues found on many social media apps. 

“For a very long time, we have been trying to clarify, or at least distinguish, the difference between friends and publishers,” Spiegel said in November. “Like, on the Stories page, do you show friends or publishers first? Because our service was really built on this idea of helping friends communicate, we chose friends – and ultimately what that meant is that all of this awesome publisher content was all the way down at the bottom.”

Jenner later tweeted a follow-up, seemingly supporting the app: “still love you tho snap… my first love” – perhaps a little late for investors after shares tumbled almost eight percent, wiping $1.3 billion off the stock market value.

 

 

 

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