Looking Into Institutions.

Snapchat.

Snapchat formerly known as Picaboo, was created by Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO in addition Bobby Murphy co-founder and CTO. They still own it now unlike most media companies. For example, MySpace. After turning down a $3 billion offer from Facebook in 2013 as of late Snapchat is now worth $15 billion after company Alibaba (who owns online shopping sites such as Aliexpress) invested $200 million in March 2015. There was no app like it. Its revolutionary disappearing-image app. Found to be very popular amongst teenagers. People used it because the ideology behind it was that they could send pictures and videos to there friends without fear of it ending up online. As well as the feature of knowing if somebody screen shots your snap made it even more safer. By allowing their audience to send pictures and videos to one another knowing that it would be erased after a couple of  seconds is what the app provides to consumers. Since it's release in July of 2011 it has done very well as of 2013 it had 60 million installs that more than Instagram when it was sold to to Facebook for $1 billion with 30 million active monthly users now in 2015 it has 100 million with 65% of  active users. Snapchats recent update has now allowed us to change and add things to our faces. Unlike other media attachment it isn't stationary. For example, the cry feature, if you raise your eyebrows tears fall. Allowing the app to be more interactive. 
The only major controversy in regards to the app was that it was hacked and the introduction of apps such as SnapSave which allowed people to save other peoples snap without their knowledge. However the creators sought legal help with this. I believe that now they are aware of when these photos/videos are being save thus preventing that to happen. The idea of Snapchat led to a bit of conversation in the beginning with people believing that people would send nude pictures. However it was made very clear that, that wasn't the primary use for it. With the introduction of Snapchat it has made photo/video sharing different whilst also stepping on the territories of other apps such as Whatsapp. The idea of sending pictures before came with a fear that people would share it with others however Snapchat found a way to change that and making you aware if someone has tried to screen shot the image. This made Snapchat a strong competitor in the media app game. Changing the way we now communicate with our friends and in some cases fans. It brings fans a bit closer to their favourite superstar. With people such as Rihanna and Zendaya being very active users.