Despite a sizzling IPO, Snap's founders said they're not hot on the trail of Facebook's scale, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.
"We're not just chasing growth," co-founder Bobby Murphy exclusively told the LA Times.
Shares of Snap traded in heavy volume on the first day in the public market, with 200 million shares — the entire size of the offering— changing hands. But at around $33 billion in market capitalization, the company was still less than a tenth of the size of fellow internet advertising company, Facebook.
CEO Evan Spiegel recognizes that investors have been asking if Snapchat is the "next Facebook," the LA Times reported. Spiegel told the LA Times that Snap could become just as valuable as Facebook, just with fewer users than Facebook's massive 1.9 billion user base.
Spiegel told the LA Times he'd rather investors focus on engagement than user growth. He said he sees a benefit in the company's value being determined by the public market, the report said.
"We'd rather inspire creation because we know a derivative of that is growth," Spiegel said.
For more insider commentary on the Snap IPO, see the full article at LATimes.com.
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