Start-ups

Snapchat's new forte? Making $$$ disappear: Report

People take pictures in front of SnapChat headquarters in Venice Beach, Calif.
Patrick Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Snapchat, the app that specializes in vanishing messages, has a new forte: Making profits disappear, according to a new report Wednesday.

The 3-year-old start-up had a loss of $128 million and generated just $3 million in revenue last year, according to documents obtained by Gawker.

The leaked financials also showed the company spent about $13.7 million on "outside services," which is nearly equivalent to the amount it spent on labor costs during the period.

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Snapchat, which turned down Facebook's $3 billion buyout offer in 2013, operates a social media app where messages automatically disappear, making it extremely popular among teenagers.

The company secured about $537.6 million in venture capital funding in the second quarter—more than any other software start-up during that period, according to the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

CB Insights' Mike Dempsey told Gawker that the losses were "big for 11 months, but not outrageous," adding that "if Snapchat is at a similar point right now in its business life cycle as 2012-2013 Twitter, the new funding probably gives them a multiyear runway."

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In a separate report on Wednesday, Re/code pointed out that Snapchat launched its first revenue product in October, so it isn't surprising that the company spent more than it made.

It finally ramped up advertising earlier this year when it started selling ad space alongside its Discover content, Re/code noted.

Snapchat did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

Read the full Snapchat report from Gawker here.