Social media giant Snapchat moved closer to flotation on Friday, after confirming that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs would underwrite the initial public offering.

The IPO is expected to value the company at $25 billion, making it the largest social media company to float on the stock market since Twitter. The IPO is rumoured to take place before March 2017.

The Snapchat app allows users to send and receive messages and photos – called ‘snaps’ – which then disappear after a maximum of 10 seconds. It has seen a strong growth in popularity, attracting high-profile users such as Michelle Obama and Gigi Hadid. It has 150 million users watching 10 billion videos a day, and has seen a 350 percent increase in use over the last year.

Data from eMarketer shows that Snapchat may have the potential to bring in nearly $1 billion in advertising revenue by the end of 2017, a strong increase on the $367 million it is predicted to make from adverts this year.

14/10/2016