SNAPCHAT?S STAR CONTINUES to rise, and now, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is hoping to hitch a ride.
According to anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg, Alibaba is in the process of investing $200 million in the messaging service, at a $15 billion valuation. Snapchat declined to comment for this story, but Bloomberg reports that investment would be independent of the $500 million that Snapchat was reportedly seeking to raise last month, which would have valued the company as high as $19 billion, nearly twice the valuation it received just last year.
In other words, Snapchat is friggin? rolling in it, creeping up behind companies like Uber, with its $40 billion valuation, and the Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which is currently valued at $45 billion. Investors are drawn to Snapchat because of its existing traction among young mobile users, but also because of the ephemeral messaging app?s potential to become a gargantuan new media company, a promise on which the startup has recently begun to deliver.
Read more at Wired.
