Following Variety.com’s recent exposure of Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel for claiming in 2015 that the company’s app is only for “rich people” and that there’s no need to expand in “poor countries” like India and Spain, uproar has been swift.
On the Indian app store, reviews are being posted by the minute, with the average rating for the app having swindled down to just one star. In just 24 hours since Saturday, almost 400,000 people in India deleted the Snapchat app from their phones.
The revelation that Spiegel had made those comments came from an ex-employee, Anthony Pompliano, Variety.com reported.
At a meeting to discuss Snapchat’s user growth back in 2015, Pompliano said he expressed concern that the app was not taking off overseas.
We Indians are happy with the beautiful faces we've been blessed with.Least interested in being reincarnated as dogs & cats#boycottsnapchat
— Yusra❤Kajal (@yusra_nihad) April 16, 2017
Think before you speak, CEO of 'snapchat'. Now see how poor u r going to be. #boycottsnapchat
— Thakur Anurag (@anuragthakurma2) April 16, 2017
He contends that when he presented ideas to address the issue, Spiegel cut him off.
“This app is only for rich people,” Spiegel said, according to Pompliano. “I don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.”
The allegations are contained in Pompliano’s lawsuit against the company. Pompliano was only a part of staff for a short three weeks before he was fired.
As users reacted to the leaked comments, #boycottsnapchat also became a trending topic on Twitter Saturday, with many tweeting their outrage.