The Great Snapchat Mirage [BuzzFeed]

Still tbd where Snapchat is on the PointCast ... Instagram continuum

"This is not to say that Snapchat isn’t popular. It certainly is, by many reasonable, anecdotal definitions! And the fact that Facebook, which presumably did some due diligence, thought the company was worth three Instagrams, should not be ignored (though it should also be understood as an attempt made by a company that desperately wants, and needs, to stay relevant, and that once tried to rip off Snapchat when the service was very young).
But Snapchat is a startup. It’s a startup that is courting buyers, or at least humoring them, and that may be in the process of raising an enormous amount of money. It is clearly in Snapchat’s interest to share its most impressive numbers, but it is in everyone else’s interest to demand to know more, and to take these numbers — these context-free numbers — with a wheelbarrow of salt."

The Great Snapchat Mirage