Snapchat CEO’s net worth tanks $150 mn after Rihanna’s rant
Los Angeles, March 18 (IANS) After singer Rihanna blasted Snapchat for running an ad that made light of domestic violence, the net worth of the company’s CEO fell nearly $150 million over two days, the media reported.
Evan Spiegel, Cofounder and CEO, of Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, is now worth an estimated $3.8 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time rankings of the planet’s wealthiest people on Saturday.
After the singer told users to delete the app, shares of Snap Inc. dropped nearly five per cent on Thursday and it fell another two per cent on Friday, before rebounding slightly for a total two-day loss of 4.7 per cent, according to the Forbes report.
Rihanna accused Snapchat of making light of a 2009 incident when the singer’s then boyfriend Chris Brown physically assaulted her.
She was referring to a Snapchat ad that asked users if they would rather slap Rihanna or punch Brown.
The ad immediately received a vocal backlash on social media, with notables like Chelsea Clinton coming forward to question Snapchat’s judgment in choosing to run the ad, Time.com reported.
Snapchat deleted the ad on Tuesday and issued a statement and apology in an interview to the BBC, stating: “The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines. We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware. We are sorry that this happened.”
Rihanna was not content with the apology and On Thursday morning, the singer took to her Instagram story, where she offered her thoughts on the matter.
“Now snapchat I know you already know you ain’t my favourite app out there! But I’m just trying to figure out what the point was with this mess! I’d love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain’t that dumb,” she wrote.
“You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV (domestic violence) victims and made a joke of it!!!”
This is not the first time this year that Snap Inc. has felt the star power of a celebrity affect their holdings.
In February, Reality TV star Kylie Jenner tweeted that she no longer used the app following a redesign, causing Snap’s share price to fall more than six per cent.