In a filing declaring it will go public, Snap listed an unusual "risk factor" for potential investors: That the company relies on Google Cloud for the vast majority of its computing, storage, bandwidth and other services
"Any disruption of or interference with our use of the Google Cloud operation would negatively affect our operations and seriously harm our business," the company disclosed in its S-1 filing made public Thursday afternoon.
Other risks it listed for potential investors include: A potential failure to attract new advertisers; the fact that most of its users are young, and by implication, fickle; and possible foreign government censorship.
By comparison, Twitter listed slowing user growth, declining demand for its ad products and foreign government censorship among its risk factors in its S-1 filing in October 2013.
In its S-1 filing in February 2012, Facebook said its biggest risk factor was growing use of its product on mobile devices "because ads and commercial content are not displayed on Facebook mobile apps."
Snap also revealed that it will spend $2 billion with Google Cloud over the next five years and has custom built its software and computer systems to use Google's computing, storage, bandwidth, and other services, some of which do not have an alternative in the market, the company said in the S-1 filing. That $2 billion cost will likely increase as the company's user base grows, the S-1 said.
