Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Snapchat is telling investors it will be a billion dollar company next year

Snapchat is raising a ton of venture capital money.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel onstage
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel onstage
Spiegel at the 2015 Code Conference
Recode / Asa Mathat

Here’s one reason investors are throwing billions of dollars at Snapchat: Its business is actually growing, and is expected to grow by a lot more in 2017.

According to an investor pitch deck TechCrunch got its hands on, Snapchat is targeting revenue of $250 million to $350 million in 2016 — the same target Recode reported earlier this year. It hit $57 million in revenue in 2015, surpassing the $50 million target the company was looking for (and Recode also reported). A nice year-over-year jump.

Snapchat expects that revenue number to jump significantly next year, too, to somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion, TechCrunch found. That’s part of the appeal for investors, who just dumped $1.8 billion into the company’s Series F funding round, according to an SEC filing from Thursday.

Snapchat’s business is still very new and many advertisers are still experimenting with its ad offerings — that is, Snapchat is not a staple in most ad budgets yet like Facebook or Google might be. But the pitch it’s giving investors certainly implies that Snapchat believes that will change.

Read this next: Inside Evan Spiegel’s very private Snapchat Story


CEO Evan Spiegel on Snapchat’s three-part business model

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh