This is not a good look for Snapchat.
During a user growth meeting in 2015, former employee Anthony Pompliano reportedly brought up concern for the app’s success overseas and proposed a way to fix the issue. According to Variety, Pompliano was allegedly brushed off by the company’s CEO, Evan Spiegel.
Pompliano claims Spiegel responded, “This app is only for rich people. I don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.”
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Since Variety published the explosive claims, Snap users in India have taken to the App Store and Twitter to show their outrage.
At the rate at which Snapchat CEO is being slapped by us Indians, he will have to change the app's name to Slapchat #boycottsnapchat #MIvGL
— Virender Sehwag (@VirenderSehweg) April 16, 2017
Signing up with #Snapchat wouldn't have been possible without an email, Email created by V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai - An Indian.#BoycottSnapchat
— Republic Of India (@RepubIicofIndia) April 16, 2017
And they were quite successful. Since #boycottsnapchat began, the popular app is now down to a measly one and a half stars.
The allegations were originally in a redacted portion of a lawsuit against Snap Inc. filed by Pompliano. The records were unsealed on Monday, last week.
The suit alleges Snap had been inflating their daily active users and registration completion rate. Pompliano claims this misled advertisers.
When he realized this was a problem, Pompliano compiled a PowerPoint presentation for Spiegel and other Snap executives. According to Pompliano, Spiegel quickly went through the presentation and said, “Yeah I read those, it doesn’t matter.”
The day after Pompliano’s presentation, he was fired. Snap is now describing Pompliano as a “disgruntled employee fired for poor performance,” but the damage has been done.
