New Snapchat update to let users share public 'Stories' outside the app

Image messaging and multimedia mobile application Snapchat on Wednesday announced that the platform will now let its user base to share some public 'Stories' via links.

"Stories eligible for sharing right now include those Official Stories and Our Stories found in the Discover tab, as well as Search Stories," TechCrunch reported.

However, according to the company, the type of 'Stories' that one can share will expand over time.

The aim is to allow users to share content from within the app to let people, who don't use the platform, know what it can do.

This feature will be going live to users running the redesigned Snapchat app, which also includes test markets like Australia and Canada.

It will become available for iOS and Android over the next few weeks.

China's Tencent acquires 12% stake in Snap as shares plunge

Snap Inc said on Wednesday that Chinese tech and media investment firm Tencent Holdings Ltd had taken a 12 per cent stake in the company, a day after the owner of disappearing-messaging app Snapchat was punished by Wall Street for disappointing quarterly results.

Snap's shares fell 16 per cent to $12.67, well below their $17 initial public offering price in March, as investors fretted about Snap's slowing user growth in the latest quarter and viewed Tencent's move as an investment rather than the precursor to a merger.

"(Tencent) buys all sorts of minority investments, and I don't think we can extrapolate that this means they intend to take over the company," said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

Snap said it had only received the details of the stake from Tencent this month. Tencent's 145.8 million class A common shares of Snap, worth about $1.7 billion at Wednesday's price, give the Chinese company no voting rights.

Tencent president Martin Lau told Snap his firm is "excited" to deepen its relationship with the firm, Snap said in a regulatory filing. A Snap spokesman declined to comment further.

The Chinese tech company, which owns mobile chat service WeChat, has bought stakes in several companies over the past few years, including electric car maker Tesla Inc and ride services company Lyft Inc. In 2013 it invested in Snap through an affiliate.
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Snap shares wither more as filings show some investors bailing

Snap Inc stock rebounded on Monday from a record low hit earlier in a choppy trading session as big investors report their latest stakes in the beleaguered social media company and as a wave of employees became eligible to sell their shares.

The shares were up 5.2 per cent at $12.44 in morning trading after falling as much as 4.7 per cent to $11.28 shortly after the market opened, their lowest point since their March debut.

Within just 45 minutes of regular trading, volume had already reached half of the stock's daily average for the past 10 days.

Starting on Monday, employees for the first time are allowed to sell their stock following the Snapchat parent's blockbuster initial public offering, potentially increasing the supply of shares in the market and their volatility.

Monday is also the deadline for hedge funds and other institutional investors to report their quarter-end holdings of U.S. equities.
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'Snapchat' most-searched app on App Store followed by Instagram: Forbes

Although Snap's stock price was a bit down this week, Snapchat is the top searched app on the iOS App Store, a media report said.

According to a report in Forbes magazine, Snapchat led all competitors in App Store search volume and as a result, Snapchat was also the app people were looking for most frequently.

Snap Inc, the parent company of picture messaging app Snapchat, went public earlier this month. The young company, founded in 2012, posted a $515 million loss last year.

According to Snapchat, 158 million people use the service each day and create 2.5 billion "snaps" between them.

Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram was placed on the second spot, while social media giant Facebook's mobile app took the third rank.

Google's video platform YouTube is on the fourth spot. Teen-focused messaging startup Kik is fifth, and micro-blogging website Twitter is sixth on the list, the report said. (READ MORE)