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<ul><li>For the financial year ending March 2023, the <keyword id="6359180" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="sia" source="Orion">SIA</keyword> Group posted a record net profit of SGD 2,157 million (USD 1,598 million) for the year.</li><li>SIA's revenue rose 133.4 per cent or by SGD 10,160 million (USD 7,526 million) year-on-year to a record SGD 17,775 million (USD 13,167 million). </li></ul>Singapore, May 22 (ANI): Following consecutive quarters of standout financial results, many expected Singapore Airlines (SIA) to turn in a dazzling set of numbers last week when it announced its full-year results. Singapore's national carrier did not disappoint as it reported the highest annual profit in its 76-year history. For the financial year ending March 2023, the SIA Group posted a record net profit of SGD 2,157 million (USD 1,598 million) for the year, versus an SGD 962 million (USD713 million) net loss in the previous year, an earnings gain of SGD 3,119 million (USD 2,310 million). SIA's revenue rose 133.4 per cent or by SGD 10,160 million (USD 7,526 million) year-on-year to a record SGD 17,775 million (USD 13,167 million). Although capacity was ramped up by 94 per cent, it was outpaced by traffic which rose 449.9 per cent. This led passenger flown revenue to expand by SGD 10,560 million (or 376.3 per cent) to SGD 13,366 million. Revenue per available seat-kilometre (RASK) was 10 Singapore cents, the highest yearly RASK in the carrier's history. During the financial year under review, the two airlines in the SIA group, full-service Singapore Airlines and low-cost Scoot, together served a total of 26.5 million passengers, a six-fold increase from a year ago. With capacity at only 79 per cent of pre-COVID levels as of March 2023, there is still room for the airline to do better. It said that its capacity is projected to reach an average of around 83 per cent of pre-COVID levels in the first half of the current financial year. The outstanding results is mostly because of the way SIA responded to the crisis wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic on the airline industry. As borders closed, and airlines stopped flying, SIA with the support of shareholders and its lenders managed to raise over USD16 billion of cash to shore up its balance sheet. This enabled it to retain more than 80 per cent of its staff as well as keep most of its aircraft operational. Many regional competitors had to furlough or let staff go and sell aircraft and as a result, had a slower start once borders reopened again. During COVID, SIA redeployed cabin crew to other sectors including as "care ambassadors" in healthcare facilities and as "transport ambassadors" to help manage safe practices on public transport. The carrier also took the opportunity to upgrade some of its cabins and also merged regional carrier <keyword id="676010" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="silkair" source="Orion">Silkair</keyword> with its main full-carrier Singapore Airlines to save costs. Digital services were also upgraded and a lifestyle rewards app Kris+ was launched. As borders reported, SIA rapidly deployed services to meet the pent-up travel demand charging above-average fares as regional competitors played catch-up. At the moment, SIA is operating at over 80 per cent of its pre-COVID levels whereas the average passenger capacity of international scheduled services of Asia-Pacific airlines is at around 58 per cent. To prepare for the future, SIA is looking into several strategic initiatives including the continued expansion of its network through deeper collaboration with like-minded airlines. One of these initiatives is the proposed merger of <keyword id="2573" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="air-india" source="Orion">Air India</keyword> and Vistara to strengthen SIA's presence in the fast-growing Indian aviation market. Through its ownership of Vistara and a further injection of USD 250 million in November last year, Singapore Airlines will be a 25.1 per cent owner of Air <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> once the merger is approved by the Indian authorities. When Tata Sons appointed Singapore Airlines (SIA) veteran <keyword id="5863894" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="campbell-wilson" source="Orion">Campbell Wilson</keyword> as chief executive officer in the middle of last year, it was probably with a view to trying to mirror the success of SIA at the newly acquired Air India. Wilson, a New Zealander, spent 25 years at SIA rotating through various roles including chief executive of Scoot, senior vice president of sales and marketing and worked for the airline in countries like Japan, Canada, and Hong Kong. If investments committed to the new Air India are an indication, Tata is on the right track to turning Air India around to become a more modern airline, with a better on-time record, better in-flight service, better cabin environment and an all-around better customer experience. The new owners have committed USD 70 billion to aircraft, USD 200 million to IT, and USD 400 million to refit the existing fleet. In February this year, it made the largest single order for new aircraft worldwide by buying 470 planes from both Boeing and Airbus. To support the growth, the airline has recruited thousands of staff, including 10 times the number of cabin crew and 10 times the number of pilots that would have been typically recruited each year. Following years of under-investment, and lack of recruitment and training, it has already made good progress in less than a year according to Wilson. Speaking to Australian aviation blogger <keyword id="8281779" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sam-chui" source="Orion">Sam Chui</keyword>, he said, "We've changed all the menus. We've replaced seats, curtains, carpets, and seat cushions. We've repaired a lot of the inflight entertainment systems, particularly in first and business class that weren't previously working. We are making good progress in economy class despite supply chain constraints." Recently, the carrier also attained the number one ranking for domestic punctuality for the first time in eight years and has consistently been amongst the top two or three in India. "The biggest challenge for us at the moment is simply the scale and pace of growth. It is a sizable airline. We carry over 100,000 people a day already," he added. Although the impact of the changes will only be felt over time, Air India's CEO is confident that the changes he has implemented will bear fruit and lead the airline back to being a premium global carrier eventually. CEO Wilson said, "Air India was in the 1960s, one of the best airlines in the world. It's got a long 90-year history. The past few years have been a bit challenging with under-investment. But now under the Tata group, which took ownership in January of 2022, there is a very significant effort to get Air India back to the heights it once was." (ANI) SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/is-whatsapp-secretly-listening-to-your-private-conversations-heres-how-to-check/articleshow/100155980.cms">Is WhatsApp secretly listening to your private conversations? Here’s how to check</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-pixel-6a-vs-pixel-7a-smartphone-comparison-with-price-and-features/articleshow/100177889.cms">Google Pixel 6a vs Pixel 7a: Is Google's latest mid-ranger worth the extra ₹12,000?</a>

Can Air India emulate Singapore Airlines' record profits?

Facebook-owned <keyword id="790242" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="WhatsApp" source="Orion">WhatsApp</keyword> is one of the most popular messaging apps for smartphones. It is a feature-rich application and receives regular updates that add new features. However, WhatsApp misses out on an important feature – a dedicated app for computers to use WhatsApp without a smartphone. WhatsApp Web allows you to use WhatsApp on your computer. However, it still requires a smartphone to scan the QR code for authentication and works only if the smartphone is connected to a network. Telegram, one of WhatsApp’s competitors has a dedicated app for PC users. Messenger, which is also owned by Facebook can be used on a computer without a smartphone. If you want to use WhatsApp on your computer, we have a solution for you. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How to open WhatsApp without a smartphone" comment="subhead" text="How to open WhatsApp without a smartphone">How to open WhatsApp without a smartphone</cmsannotation> There are several Android emulators available that allow you to install Android apps on your computer. You can use emulators like <a href="https://www.andyroid.net/">Andy</a> or <a href="https://www.bluestacks.com/">BlueStacks</a> to use WhatsApp on your computer. <ul><li>Go to Andy Android Emulator’s website and click on ‘Download’.</li><li>Now, click on the downloaded file to install the emulator.</li><li>Follow the download instructions and provide the required permissions to the emulator.</li><li>Once Andy is installed, double click on the icon to open it.</li><li>Now, search ‘WhatsApp’ in the search box at the top.</li><li>Now, click on the ‘Install’ button and wait for the app to be installed.</li><li>Now, run WhatsApp and enter your phone number.</li><li>Authenticate using OTP and enter your name.</li></ul>You can now use WhatsApp on your computer without using a smartphone. You can use Andy to install other apps and games as well. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/how-to/how-to-open-whatsapp-on-laptop/articleshow/73228727.cms">How to open WhatsApp on laptop</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/how-to-recover-deleted-whatsapp-messages/articleshow/73082094.cms">How to recover deleted messages on WhatsApp</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-to-check-if-someone-has-blocked-you-on-whatsapp/articleshow/72369027.cms">How to know if someone has blocked you on WhatsApp</a>

How to open WhatsApp without a smartphone

<keyword id="790242" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="WhatsApp" source="Orion">WhatsApp</keyword> is one of the most popular messaging apps with over 1.5 billion active monthly users. It comes with several features that make it easy to use and also adds <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/article/whatsapp-in-2019-all-features-added-to-the-messaging-app-this-year/articleshow/73046543.cms">new features</a> regularly. While WhatsApp was initially built only for smartphones, the company added support for computers to take on Telegram, one of its competitors. Today, we will show you how you can open WhatsApp on your laptop and even use WhatsApp without a smartphone. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How to open WhatsApp on laptop" comment="subhead" text="How to open WhatsApp on laptop"><keyword id="8558841" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="how-to-open-whatsapp" source="Orion">How to open WhatsApp</keyword> on laptop</cmsannotation> <ul><li>First, open a browser on a laptop and go to <a href="https://web.whatsapp.com/">WhatsApp Web</a>.</li><li>Now, open WhatsApp on your phone and tap the overflow button (three dots) at the top right corner.</li><li>Now, click on ‘WhatsApp Web’ and then click on ‘Ok’.</li><li>Now, point your phone towards your laptop and scan the QR code shown on WhatsApp Web.</li><li>You can log out either from your mobile or directly on the laptop.</li></ul><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How to install WhatsApp on Windows laptop" comment="subhead" text="How to install WhatsApp on Windows laptop">How to install WhatsApp on Windows laptop</cmsannotation> If you don’t want to use the browser to log in to WhatsApp, you can also install the app on your laptop. <ul><li>To begin, use a browser and go to WhatsApp’s <a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/download">download page</a>.</li><li>Now, click on ‘Download for Windows (64-bit).</li><li>Now, click on the WhatsApp.exe file and install it.</li><li>Launch the <keyword id="3852124" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="whatsapp-app" source="Orion">WhatsApp app</keyword> on your laptop and scan the QR code from your smartphone to login.</li></ul>How to install and open WhatsApp on macOS 10.10+ <ul><li>From your browser, go to WhatsApp’s <a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/download">download page</a>.</li><li>Now, click on ‘Download for Mac OS X 10.10 and higher’.</li><li>Now, click on the WhatsApp.dmg file and install it.</li><li>Launch WhatsApp on your laptop and scan the QR code to </li></ul><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How to install and open WhatsApp without mobile" comment="subhead" text="How to install and open WhatsApp without mobile">How to install and open WhatsApp without mobile</cmsannotation> If you want to use WhatsApp on your laptop and don’t want to scan a QR code every time, you can use an emulator to directly install WhatsApp. It must be noted that you can only use WhatsApp on one device at a time. <ul><li>Open a browser on your laptop and go to <a href="https://www.bluestacks.com/">BlueStacks website</a>.</li><li>Now, click on the ‘Download BlueStacks’ button.</li><li>Then, click on the downloaded file and install the emulator on your device by following the instructions.</li><li>Now, click on the BlueStacks icon and open the emulator.</li><li>Now, install WhatsApp on the emulator either from the list of popular apps or by searching for it.</li><li>Now, click on the WhatsApp icon on your computer.</li><li>Now, enter your phone number and enter the verification code to authenticate WhatsApp.</li></ul>Now, you will be able to use WhatsApp on your laptop without a smartphone. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/how-to/how-to-recover-deleted-whatsapp-messages/articleshow/73082094.cms">How to recover deleted messages on WhatsApp</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-to-check-if-someone-has-blocked-you-on-whatsapp/articleshow/72369027.cms">How to know if someone has blocked you on WhatsApp</a>

How to open WhatsApp on laptop

<ul><li><keyword id="6577366" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="kimbho-app">Kimbho app</keyword> was launched under the <keyword id="6356684" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="patanjali">Patanjali</keyword> banner about a week ago. </li><li>It was soon pulled from the Play Store after its security flaws were exposed.</li><li>Acharya <keyword id="360666" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Balkrishna">Balkrishna</keyword>, co-founder of Patanjali, says that the app will be available again once it has been fixed.</li></ul>An Indian billionaire, Acharya Balkrishna and his partner, the celebrity yoga guru, <keyword id="6355107" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Baba-Ramdev">Baba Ramdev</keyword> have been creating waves with their new messaging app, Kimbho. And, they have no plans of giving up even after having to pull the app from the Play Store after its initial launch. In an interview with <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-08/a-billionaire-and-a-yogi-team-up-on-a-mobile-app-no-not-a-joke">Bloomberg</a>, Balkrishna stated that the app won’t be available again until it’s been properly vetted by a team of hacking experts and security specialists. He reiterated that Kimbho would likely make a return once all the security and privacy issues have been addressed. But why messaging? The question really is, why not? Between the two of them, that is Balkrishna and Baba Ramdev, they’ve already built a business empire that has an annual <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/acharya-balkrishna/">revenue</a> stream of ₹111.41 billion ($1.65 billion). Propagating ‘swadeshi’ goods, Patanjali Ayurved claims to sell only home-grown and all-natural products. So, when there’s an app like <keyword id="790242" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="WhatsApp">WhatsApp</keyword> dominating in India but isn’t of Indian origin, why not build something local? It’s not surprising that in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal that Balkrishna would want to build a messaging app that keeps user’s data within India. Not to mention that currently, India is the world’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/india-s-recovering-economy-puts-june-rate-increase-on-table">fastest</a> growing economy with a <a href="https://www.livepopulation.com/country/india.html">consumer</a> base of 1.3 billion. Kimbho a.k.a. What’s up? Building on the hype of Patanjali’s Samriddhi Swadeshi SIM cards, the Kimbho app managed to attract 10,000 <a href="https://yourstory.com/2018/05/patanjalis-whatsapp-rival-kimbho-disappears-app-stores-day/">installs</a> within 24 hours of being announced. And, that’s pretty much when things got weird. First, a French security researcher who’s known for pointing out the security flaws with India’s government portals like the Aadhar App, pointed out how Kimbho basically has <a href="https://www.indiatimes.com/technology/apps/baba-ramdev-s-kimbho-chat-app-is-accused-of-being-unsafe-copy-of-another-app-disappears-346491.html">no security</a> whatsoever. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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This was followed by a barrage of tweets claiming how inconsistent the app was and how the interface, and even the content, was directly <a href="https://beebom.com/patanjali-kimbho-app-fake/">copied</a> from another app called Bolo. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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And then came the disappearing act. The official statement is that the ‘servers are being upgraded’. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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That being said, speculations also point towards Apple or Google being responsible since Kimbho was essentially trying to become the ‘swadeshi’ WhatsApp. Not that they were trying to hide it. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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It’s hardly been a week since these events unfolded and there’s already a <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/kimbho-saga-fake-apps-continue-to-thrive-pose-threat-2584935.html">horde</a> of <keyword id="1019131" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Fake-apps">fake apps</keyword> in the Play Store trying to emulate Baba Ramdev’s messaging app. Forget the security issues discovered by <a href="https://yourstory.com/2018/05/patanjalis-whatsapp-rival-kimbho-disappears-app-stores-day/">Baptiste Robert</a>, the fake ones pose a greater threat posing as potential malware and ground for cyber attacks. 
	
	
	
	
	











	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	<div type="image" title="rise and fall ofPatanjali'skimbho app (1)" msid="64507058" hostid="261"></div>

Here’s what’s up with Kimbho, the Indian messaging app that wants to take on WhatsApp

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Meta brainstormed how to build a Twitter competitor as Elon Musk took over the platform, NYT reports.</li><li>Mark Zuckerberg's company has sought to emulate other platforms in the past.</li></ul>Meta is looking to capitalize on Elon Musk's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-timeline-details-2022-11">chaotic Twitter takeover</a>, according to a recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/technology/twitter-rivals-alternative-platforms.html">report from The New York Times.</a>Employees from Facebook and Instragram met virtually in November to generate ideas around building a text-based app that could take on Twitter, the Times reported."Twitter is in crisis and Meta needs its mojo back," one Meta employee wrote in a post, per The Times. "LET'S GO FOR THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER."At the brainstorming session, the group of workers discussed creating a standalone text-focused app that could be built based off of Instagram's technology, the publication reported. The employees also considered building the text-based feature into Instagram's existing platform as an additional feed like Instagram Reels or rolling the feature into Instagram Notes, per The Times. Instagram Notes is a new feature for the photo-sharing app that Meta <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/instagram-adds-a-new-note-feature-in-dms-and-theres-no-way-to-turn-it-off/articleshow/94506767.cms">began testing</a> over the summer and rolled out to a select group of users. The new component allows users to post temporary short text-based messages to "close friends" or followers the individual follows back.During the meeting, Meta employees came up with several names for a potential Twitter competitor, including Realtime, Real Reels, and Instant, the Times reported.A Meta spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication.It wouldn't be the first time that Mark Zuckerberg's company has attempted to copy another social media platform. Instagram has also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-reels-struggling-to-keep-up-with-tiktok-2022-9">taken on TikTok</a> head-on with Instagram Reels after testing and shutting down a separate TikTok clone, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/01/lasso-facebook-tiktok-shut-down/">Lasso</a>, and Zuckerberg has discussed turning Meta's WhatsApp into a <a href="https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/meta-transform-whatsapp-super-app">WeChat competitor</a>. The Facebook founder has also expressed interest in Twitter in the past. In 2008, Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-alternate-universe-where-facebook-bought-twitter/">offered to buy Twitter</a> for $500 million, but the company rejected the bid.Meta isn't the only company looking to benefit from the turbulence at Twitter. Smaller Twitter competitors like Mastodon and Hive have also <a href="https://www.theverge.com/23494253/elon-musk-twitter-alternatives-mastodon-post-hive-narwhal">tossed their hats in the ring</a>. Meanwhile, microblogging site Tumblr took the opportunity to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tumblr-trolls-twitter-verification-blue-checkmark-sells-multiple-checks-2022-11">take a dig</a> at Musk's plans for his new social media company.Since the richest man in the world <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-reach-agreement-to-close-acquisition-deal-2022-10">took Twitter private</a> in October there's been a large amount of uncertainty regarding the company's future. Within hours of taking over, Musk <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-reach-agreement-to-close-acquisition-deal-2022-10">terminated much of Twitter's executive staff</a>, including its CEO Parag Agrawal. The billionaire later <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-twitter-identifies-thousands-who-will-be-laid-off-2022-11">laid off about half</a> of the company's workforce and hundreds more <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-elon-musk-half-working-2022-11">left of their own accord</a> after Musk called for workers to commit to working an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-staff-commit-extremely-hardcore-work-laid-off-2022-11">"extremely hardcore"</a> work schedule. At the time of the mass exodus, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/death-twitter-elon-musk-facebook-digg-friendster-myspace-2022-11">concerns circulated</a> online that Twitter would be at a higher risk of suffering outages after it lost such a large portion of its engineers.In the weeks following Musk's acquisition, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shonda-rhimes-celebrities-leave-twitter-elon-musk-takeover-social-media-2022-10">some celebrities</a> left the platform and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-lost-half-top-advertisers-elon-musk-takeover-report-2022-11">advertisers</a> paused or stopped advertising on the platform over content <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-moderation-system-hate-speech-midterm-elections-report-2022-11">moderation concerns.</a> Without major advertisers, Twitter could flounder as ads accounted for about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/technology/twitter-advertising-targets-missed.html">90% of Twitter's revenue</a> last year.Meanwhile, Musk has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/musk-personally-called-ceo-companies-to-complain-ad-spending-twitter-2022-11">worked to get advertisers to return</a> to the platform. He has also <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593455727611215872">repeatedly claimed</a> that the number of users on the site is at an all-time high."The best people are staying, so I'm not super worried," the billionaire <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593453455972057090">said last month</a>.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/technology/twitter-rivals-alternative-platforms.html">Read The Times' full story on its website.</a>

Meta considered building a Twitter competitor to capitalize on Elon Musk's 'crisis' at company, report says: 'LET'S GO FOR THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER'

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.8bitdo.com/zero/">8Bitdo</a>A few months ago, I discovered that an Android device is actually the perfect retro gaming system.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>I've been a diehard Apple user for as long as I can remember, and, up until recently, I exclusively used iPhones since shortly after the first one came out in 2007.</li><li>Last November, I decided to retire my iPhone 6S and, after much deliberation, decided to give the well-reviewed OnePlus 6T and Google's Android operating system a try.</li><li>I wrote about my <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/diehard-iphone-ios-user-switches-to-android-oneplus-6t-2018-11">positive experience switching</a> to Android at the time and received dozens of e-mails from Android users telling me to wait until I realized what having an "open ecosystem" meant.</li><li>While I've found a lot of benefits to the "open ecosystem," by far the biggest revelation for me has been that I can download emulator apps for retro gaming systems like Super Nintendo, Atari, and Gameboy - apps that never would have been approved by Apple. </li></ul>Four months ago, I did what I previously thought was unthinkable. I gave up my iPhone. I'd been using Apple products since I was eight and had been locked into iOS and the iPhone since a bespectacled Steve Jobs unveiled it in 2007. The change came <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/diehard-iphone-ios-user-switches-to-android-oneplus-6t-2018-11">after much public deliberating,</a> a few close calls, and a tip from my colleague on the tech desk, Antonio Villas-Boas, who called the $580 OnePlus 6T "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oneplus-6t-hands-on-price-release-date-specs-new-features-2018-10">the best smartphone you've never heard of</a>."I bought the OnePlus and all of the sudden I was an Android user and ... all my friends abandoned me.Just kidding. I talked them all into downloading WhatsApp, which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-vs-android-imessage-ios-switch-2018-12">is admittedly is still a subpar substitute</a> for iMessage.Immediately, there were aspects of Android I liked: The operating system's app launcher (i.e., the home screen) is changeable into any configuration you choose, with the ability to drop in widgets for the weather or multiple time zones, as well as a Google search bar. Double-tapping the power button to open the camera app was a game-changer for me as a street photographer. Notifications felt more customizable and artificial-intelligence-powered - if you keep dismissing a notification, Google picks up on that and will give you the option to stop showing it.After publishing my article about switching, however, I kept getting e-mails from Android users telling me I hadn't even scratched the surface. I hadn't yet experienced, they said, what having a truly "open" ecosystem means.An oversimplified definition of what people mean they <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/217593/android-is-open-and-ios-is-closed-but-what-does-that-mean-to-you/">describe Android as "open" and iOS as "closed</a>" would be that you can do almost whatever you want on an Android device.Want to install an app not on the Google Play Store? Go for it. Want to change the default address-book, e-mail client, or web browser? You can do that, too. Want to plug your phone into your computer and look through your files like any other hard drive you own? You can do that on Android - but not iOS.The limitations on iOS go beyond that. Apple does not allow apps in the App Store they consider controversial, which includes video game emulators - likely the reason I won't ever go back to iOS.While I'm by no means a video game junkie, I do love The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and other classic game series. I more or less purchased a Nintendo Switch explicitly so I could play the lastest iteration of Zelda, Breath of the Wild. I had hoped that Nintendo would release all the previous installments of the series on the Nintendo Switch, but alas, that has yet to happen.Then, a few months ago, I discovered that an Android device is actually the perfect retro gaming system. There are <a href="https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-game-emulators-for-android/">over a dozen emulators</a> easily available for Android that will have you playing everything from old arcade games to Nintendo 64 games to Game Boy games in a matter of minutes.In order to do the same on an iPhone, you have to go through the arduous process of "jailbreaking" your phone (essentially breaking the iPhone out of its closed ecosystem) or "<a href="https://lifehacker.com/the-non-jailbreakers-guide-to-emulation-on-ios-1536403860">side-loading</a>," an equally annoying process.For comparison, I was able to download the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.explusalpha.Snes9xPlus&amp;hl=en_US">SNES9X </a>Super Nintendo emulator directly from the Google Play store and start playing one of the greatest games of all time, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, with a few clicks. I liked it so much, I purchased <a href="http://www.8bitdo.com/zero/">a tiny Bluetooth controller</a> by 8Bitdo to play it with.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider</div></div></div>I'm already through four dungeons and plotting what game I'll load up when I finish. After using an iPhone for a decade, the act of tweaking my phone to my needs felt revolutionary. And unless my family threatens to disown me over my lack of iMessage, I doubt I'll be coming back anytime soon.For now, I'm having too much fun crushing retro games on the numerous long plane, train, and bus rides I regularly take.<ul class="read-more-links"><li>More tips from Business Insider's international correspondent:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/diehard-iphone-ios-user-switches-to-android-oneplus-6t-2018-11" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">I switched to Android after more than a decade with the iPhone, and I'm not going back. Here's why.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/travel-tip-find-healthy-good-cheap-food-2018-11" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">I use the same trick in any city I visit to make sure I find amazing food</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-couchsurfing-app-to-meet-locals-traveling-2018-1" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">Couchsurfing has a hidden feature that helped me have the wildest night in Tokyo partying until sunrise</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/multicity-flights-expedia-skyscanner-mistake-2018-10" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">I found out the hard way that one of the best strategies to save money on flights can end up costing you big time</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-travel-advice-skip-attractions-that-dont-interest-you-2018-10" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">The single best piece of advice I can give you for any trip you take</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/travel-advice-biggest-travel-mistakes-2018-10" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">I've traveled to more than 30 countries, and here are the dumbest mistakes I made on the road that I'll never make again</a></li></ul> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-285-million-nyc-apartment-2019-2">Take a look inside a $28.5 million NYC apartment on Billionaires' Row</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

I switched to Android after more than a decade with the iPhone, and retro gaming has all but ensured I'll never go back

Quickie is a new ephemeral messaging app that lets you draw sketches onscreen that will animate across your friend's smartphone screen.
Everything you send on Quickie disappears seconds after the person on the other end sees it, which is meant to emulate the fleeting nature of actual conversations. But Quickie, unfortunately, doesn't really have any differentiating features - even the sketching idea is basically the same feature Apple unveiled for its Apple Watch back in September. (You could also argue Apple took this idea from Snapchat's ability to add doodles to your pictures messages, but the point is that sending sketches to your friends is nothing new.) 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>
Quickie included the sketching feature to allow for more intimate forms of communication, but aside from a crudely-drawn heart or smiley face, it only serves to help you remember how terrible you are at drawing. Kids might like it, but most people will opt for the app's plain-old text or photo messaging features.
Quickie's founder Erez Pilosof says a majority of people use Quickie to send text messages, which explains why you'll always find a keyboard stuck to the bottom of the screen.
The app only lets you choose eight contacts, or "besties," to ensure that you're only talking to your close friends, but there isn't any reason the app couldn't allow for more. Aside from possibly giving the app an exclusive feel, most people will just wonder why the limit exists.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>
Even with a simplistic and clean layout that's quite nice, Quickie will face the same struggle that the hundreds of other messaging apps out there share: Why should users download it over established competitors like Snapchat and WhatsApp? At the end of the day, Quickie doesn't offer any truly differentiating features, so most people might still prefer Snapchat, WhatsApp, or iMessage, since that's where their friends are.
You can download Quickie for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/id939630105">iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pingapp.status&amp;hl=en">Android.</a>

Meet Quickie, A Sketch-Messaging App That Takes A Few Notes From The Apple Watch

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dumas-family-hermes-wealth-net-worth-heirs-fortune-lifestyle-birkin-2019-3">Hermès</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/birkin-bag">Birkin bags</a> are the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-birkin-bag-sells-for-record-380000-at-hong-kong-auction-2017-5">most expensive bags in the world</a>, ranging from $40,000 to $500,000 for a single bag.</li><li>Named after actress and singer Jane Birkin, the iconic bag is handcrafted and strictly exclusive, which drives the value of the Birkin year after year.</li><li>A 2017 study revealed that the value of Hermès Birkin bags has increased 500% in the last 35 years, an increase of 14% per year.</li><li>Most recently, professional sports betting consultant, David "<a href="https://www.instagram.com/itsvegasdave/">Vegas Dave</a>" Oancea bought a Himalaya Birkin 35 for $500,000</li><li><div><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a> </div></li></ul>Following is a transcript of the video.Narrator: Hermès Birkin bags are some of the most expensive bags in the world, ranging anywhere from $9,000 to half a million dollars. The bags embody absolute luxury.- A Birkin bag?- You've heard of it?- Of course. That's a very nice purse.Narrator: The exclusive accessory's even considered by some to be a better investment than gold or the stock market. And the world's most expensive bag is an Hermès Himalaya Birkin bag that sold for $500,000. So what is it that makes Birkin bags so expensive? The story of the bag begins with its namesake: Jane Birkin. On a flight from Paris to London, the English actress happened to be seated next to the chief executive of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas.Pilot: Flight attendants, please prepare for takeoff.Narrator: Jane was known for carrying a wicker basket wherever she went and used it for everything from groceries to diapers. When she tried to fit her famous basket in the overhead compartment, the lid came off, spilling the contents everywhere. Jane complained to her seatmate that it was impossible to find a weekend bag she liked. Dumas introduced himself as the head of Hermès, and the pair spent the flight sketching possible handbag designs on the back of an airplane sick bag. A year later, Dumas presented Jane with the Birkin bag, a spacious yet sophisticated leather design perfect for everyday use. The Birkin's pockets made it highly functional, and the bag seals to prevent anything from spilling. Hermès makes the bags in France using premium materials like calf skin, alligator skin, and even ostrich skin. Each bag is made entirely by hand.Although Birkins are one of the most exclusive and sought-after bags today, they actually weren't all that popular when they first launched. It wasn't until the '90s that the Birkin became one of the it-bags of the era. Now they're the ultimate status symbol. Victoria Beckham reportedly has a collection of over 100 Birkins, estimated to be worth over $2 million, and Singaporean socialite and entrepreneur Jamie Chua is considered to have the world's largest Birkin collection with over 200 bags.But you can't just walk into Hermès and get one. While there used to be a wait list, nowadays all you can do is hope to be important enough or spend enough to be offered a Birkin bag. And if you're offered one, don't expect to be able to choose the color or size.Hermès also places limits on how many Birkin bags a client can purchase per year. This dedication to preserving the exclusivity of the bag has certainly paid off, and the disparity in demand and access has created a thriving resale market.A 2017 study revealed that the value of Hermès Birkin bags has increased 500% in the last 35 years, an increase of 14% per year. One of the most coveted models comes from Hermès' Himalaya collection, which comes in three sizes. Often referred to as the holy grail of handbags, the white Himalaya Birkin bag features 18-karat white gold hardware and more than 200 diamonds. The 35-centimeter model in particular is very rare and has sold at record prices year after year. Most recently in 2019, it sold for over half a million dollars. Professional sports betting consultant David Oancea, also known as Vegas Dave, made the record-breaking purchase.David Oancea: The reason I bought the Birkin bag is I love breaking records. I broke all the sports betting records, I wanted to break the most-expensive-bag record. I'm all about raising the bar. Also, it's about supply and demand. The only other one in the world is by Steve Harvey's wife, so there's only two in the world. Not even Kim Kardashian has this, so I actually bought it for content, believe it or not, so I could take videos with it, pictures of it, getting people to talk about me.Narrator: The record-breaking sale actually took place over social media.Oancea: Sale was pretty easy. I posted on social media, I have about a million followers, that I'm looking for a bag. This lady hit me up, Privé Porter. She messaged me, said she'd get me the bag. I realized it was the most expensive bag. She said it would break the record. And this is for sure the record, $500,000?- Absolutely, most expensive bag ever sold.Oancea: We closed this deal in about three to four days, really, really fast. I actually do use the bag. Most people think I'm crazy. They put it away like in a safe, and they never touch it again. I've taken it out twice, once to a night club in Vegas as a great piece of content. It's definitely worth the cost 'cause you could offer me a million dollars cash, and I wouldn't sell it. My asking price is $2 million. If not, I'll just keep the d--- thing.Narrator: It's also made with white or albino crocodile skin, which is extremely rare. The costly skin is painstakingly dyed to emulate the snowy appearance of the Himalayan mountains.Mason Howell: The high <keyword id="6354851" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="retail">retail</keyword> value and resale value is because these are pieces of artwork. These artisans train years and years to make one of these bags, and they may even train 10 years before even they're allowed to make a Birkin.Narrator: Another reason for the bag's high price of course is the limited availability. The total number of Birkin bags Hermès produces each year is a well-guarded secret, but it's estimated that there may be around 200,000 in circulation. And for the luxury resale market, Birkin bags are a hot commodity. Online retailer Privé Porter uses Instagram and WhatsApp to sell the bags online, and luxury reseller The RealReal has hundreds of Birkins available at any given time, many of which are priced well above the original retail cost.Howell: The Birkin bag does retain and sometimes exceeds its value. It really does depend on the leather, the color, the size of the bag, you know, the hardware. There are so many factors that go into pricing a Birkin that it could really vary. However, if you do buy a Birkin, let's say in 2004, and maybe the retail at that time was $5,000, you most likely will be able to sell it, even if you have worn it so many times, for $5,000, $6,000.Narrator: Even as resellers like The RealReal and Privé Porter have made more Birkins available than ever, the prices haven't gone down.Howell: If you go to Hermès, you may not always get the exact color, size, that you want. Here, we have almost every single option, and if that means you have to pay a small premium, people and our clients are willing to do so. Even though that there has been such a saturation of these bags, not one bag is the same. So let's say an Etain Birkin 35 with gold hardware, we only have one right now, and if it's sold, we may not get another for a while, so someone's looking for that, and they'd be willing to pay an extra maybe $10,000 to get that bag as soon as possible, and all these bags are handmade, artisan craftsmanship. It's a piece of artwork. Not one is the same, not even one stitch.Narrator: So if you have an extra $10,000 lying around, it could be worthwhile to invest it in a Birkin. Just make sure that you're not falling for a fake. From Canal Street in New York City to websites like eBay, the counterfeit market is full of luxury knockoffs, and Birkins are no exception. Back in 2012, Hermès sued several websites for selling fake products and won $100 million in damages.That same year, French police cracked down on an international crime ring that was manufacturing counterfeit Birkin bags. The crime ring reportedly included actual Hermès employees. Only two employees were arrested, but Hermès believed that several other employees could have been involved. And despite all their efforts, fake products continue to flood the market. The quality of counterfeit bags has also vastly improved over the years, making it difficult to tell whether a bag is real or fake. However, there are a few tricks to spotting a fake Birkin.Howell: The handle should never be too long. If they look too long, longer than the bag, then it is most likely inauthentic. The hardware shouldn't be too shiny or protrude out, and the feet, another big thing, it's one of the best things I always check, is that the feet should never screw off. They are hammered in. The leather itself should feel very supple, very luxurious.Narrator: And if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. While many other handbag styles have come and gone, it looks like the Birkin is here to stay. And the bag has become synonymous with status in a way that many other luxury goods have yet to.Despite its popularity, the bag features no prominent logos and is only recognizable to people who already know what it is. In Birkin, Hermès has created something that feels inaccessible unless highly exclusive. As for whether the Birkin will always be so expensive, only time will tell.

A handbag expert explains why Hermes Birkin bags are so expensive

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div>Snapchat website</div>SAN FRANCISCO, March 31 (Reuters) - Create personal profiles. Build networks of friends. Share photos, videos and music.
That might sound precisely like <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword>, but hundreds of millions of tech-savvy young people have instead turned to a wave of smartphone-based messaging apps that are now sweeping across North America, Asia and Europe.
The hot apps include Kik and Whatsapp, both products of North American startups, as well as Kakao Inc's KakaoTalk, NHN Corp's LINE and Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat, which have blossomed in Asian markets.
Combining elements of text messaging and social networking, the apps provide a quick-fire way for smartphone users to trade everything from brief texts to flirtatious pictures to YouTube clips - bypassing both the SMS plans offered by wireless carriers and established social networks originally designed as websites.
Facebook Inc, with 1 billion users, remains by far the world's most popular website, and its stepped-up focus on mobile has made it the most-used smartphone app as well. Still, across Silicon Valley, investors and industry insiders say there is a possibility that the messaging apps could threaten Facebook's dominance over the next few years. The larger ones are even starting to emerge as full-blown "platforms" that can support third-party applications such as games.
To be sure, many of those who are using the new messaging apps remain on Facebook, indicating there is little immediate sign of the giant social media company losing its lock on the market. And at a press event this week, the company will unveil news relating to Android, the world's most popular smartphone operating system, which could include a new version of Android with deeper integration of Facebook messaging tools - or possibly even a Facebook-branded phone.
But the firms that can take over the messaging world should be able to make some big inroads, investors say.
"True interactions are conversational in nature," says Rich Miner, a partner at Google Ventures who invested in San Francisco-based MessageMe, a new entrant in the messaging market. "More people text and make phone calls than get on to social networks. If one company dominates the replacement of that traffic, then by definition that's very big."
Facebook spokespeople declined to comment for this article, citing this Thursday's planned announcement.
Facebook's big challenge is reeling back users like Jacob Robinson, a 15-year old high school student in Newcastle upon Tyne in the U.K., who said the Kik messaging app "blew up" among his friends about six months ago. It has remained the most-used app on his Android phone because it is the easiest way for him to send different kinds of multimedia for free, which he estimated he does about 200 times a day.
Robinson said he trades snapshots of his homework with friends while they stay up late studying for their exams - or not.
"We also stay up in bed with our phone all night, just on YouTube searching for funny videos, then you quickly share it with your friends," he added. "It's easy. You can flip in and out of Kik."
Facebook "has really started to lose its edge over here," said Robinson, who found his interactions on Facebook less interesting than his real-time chats.
Waterloo, Ontario-based Kik has racked up 40 million users since launching in 2010. Silicon Valley entrants in the race include Whatsapp, funded by Sequoia Capital, and MessageMe, launched earlier this month by a group of viral game makers. MessageMe has received seed-stage funding from True Ventures and First Round Capital, among others, and claimed 1 million downloads in its first week.
Meanwhile, Asian companies are producing some of the fastest-growing apps in history. Tencent's WeChat boasts 400 million users - far more than Twitter, by way of comparison - while LINE and KakaoTalk claim 120 million and 80 million users, respectively. Both have laid the groundwork to expand into the U.S. market.
MOBILE WAVE
The growth in the messaging apps reflect the dramatic shift in Internet usage in recent years, as Web visits via desktop computers have stagnated while smartphone ownership and app downloads have skyrocketed.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has publicly called Facebook a "mobile company" to emphasize the company's priorities. Last year, he splashed $1 billion for photo-sharing app Instagram, which has remained red hot, while Facebook also launched its own Messenger app, offering a suite of smartphone communication tools.
Still, Facebook has also been forced to play defense. Earlier this year, the company cut off its data integration with a young startup called Snapchat and then mimicked its feature with a new messaging tool called Poke, which sends messages that self-destruct. It has also shut off its integration with messaging apps like MessageMe and Voxer.
At the same time, Facebook has also hired graphic artists to draw emoticons and graphics for Messenger that emulate features of the wildly popular Asian apps like LINE, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Dave Morin, an early Facebook employee who left to found the "private" social network Path in 2010, said he recognized last summer the critical role of messaging functions in smartphone apps, and quickly began working to incorporate them.
Since Path released a new version of its app earlier this month, the number of Path's daily users has risen 15 percent, which Morin attributed to the new messaging features.
"What's the number one reason why people have this thing?" said Morin, holding up his iPhone. "It's to call, to text, to communicate."
Messaging, Morin added, is "the basis for the mobile social network."
PLATFORM THREAT
While established social networks move to incorporate messaging features, the new-wave messaging apps are looking to grow into social networking platforms that support a variety of features and enable innovations from outside developers.
"The tried and true approach for a social network is first you build a network, then you build apps on your own, then you open it up to third party developers," said Charles Hudson, a partner at early stage venture capital firm SoftTech VC.
The moves mirror Facebook's younger days, when its user growth and revenues were boosted by game publishers like Zynga Inc, which made popular games like FarmVille for the Facebook platform.
In the South Korean market, for instance, eight of the top ten highest grossing Android apps are games built on top of KakaoTalk. Tencent announced in November that it would introduce a mobile wallet feature enabling payment for goods with WeChat. And Tencent also makes money in China by using the app's location data to displaying nearby merchants' deals to potential customers.
If the messaging apps reach a certain scale, they could form networks that rival Facebook's "social graph," the network of user connections and activities that enable highly targeted delivery of content and advertising.
"The folks on your address book are very different from your Facebook friends and your LinkedIn contacts, and that's a natural place for a very powerful graph to be created," said Jim Goetz, a partner at Sequoia Capital.
Ted Livingston, the 25-year old chief executive of Kik, said he developed the capability for his service to support external features in November, and he plans to open the platform to outside developers in the near future.
Livingston said Kik and Whatsapp were "in a race to see who's the first to build a platform."
Whatsapp, which has been the most widely downloaded communication app for both iOS and Android in recent months, according to analysis firm App Annie, has been profitable by selling subscriptions to its service for $1 a year. Although it has remained mum about its platform plans, the company has been rumored to be in talks with Asian game publishers about hosting games, according to news reports in South Korea.
Goetz declined to address the reports, saying only that because it relied on a subscription business model, Whatsapp did not need to sell games or ads to make money.
Still, he said, the Whatsapp team "spends a lot of time thinking about the developer community."
DEAL POTENTIAL
Established social networking giants could also swoop in for the upstarts - and Facebook has demonstrated its appetite for acquisitions.
Indeed, investors are eyeing a round of potentially lucrative buyouts resembling the series of deals involving group messaging applications in 2011.
Facebook acquired group messaging app Beluga in March of that year, enlisting its founders to help build its own stand alone app, Messenger, which launched six months later.
In late 2010, First Round Capital, an early stage venture capital firm, invested in GroupMe, a group messaging startup that was sold to Skype just fifteen months after it launched.
Kent Goldman, a First Round partner who has backed MessageMe, said it was unlikely that the market in the long term could support numerous independent messaging startups, which by their nature become more powerful as they grow larger.
"You don't want to be the smallest one when the music stops," he said.
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Millions Of Teens Are Skipping Facebook And Using A New Breed Of Flirty Mobile Messaging Apps

We asked 4 VC investors what they look for in a fintech founder: they want someone who's 'gritty' and has 'transgressive' ideas, but also knows when to take advice

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Snapchat wants to go&#xa0;public in&#xa0;the first half of 2017. Its valuation, Bloomberg reports, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-26/snapchat-said-to-seek-to-raise-as-much-as-4-billion-in-ipo">could be up to $40 billion</a>.If you consider Snapchat's business today, that seems ludicrous.Snapchat, which recently changed its corporate name to Snap Inc, &#xa0;will reportedly&#xa0;generate about $300 million in 2016,&#xa0;up from roughly $50 million last year. Even if you believe Snap can generate $1 billion-2 billion in 2017 (its rumored projection), a $40 billion IPO would give the company a hard-t0-justify 40X&#xa0;multiple. Its ad offerings and technology are relatively early days, compared to peers like Google and Facebook, and TV ads- which&#xa0;Snap likely wants to compete against- are&#xa0;still generally priced much higher than online video units.Facebook, by comparison, is expected to generate about <a href="https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/forecasts?s=FB:NSQ">$27 billion</a> this year. And although it boasts a&#xa0;massive <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/FB-Quote">$370 billion</a>&#xa0;market cap, Facebook's stock is only trading at 10x next year's projected revenue.For many investors, that's reason enough to dismiss Snap out of hand.But if you ignore the numbers for a minute and look at Snap's product and leadership track record, it becomes much tougher to write the company off as just an overhyped flash in the pan. If Snap's impact on the tech industry over the next five&#xa0;years is as profound as the past five, then some of the heated&#xa0;expectations around the company might not be so outlandish.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div><h2>Evan Spiegel&#xa0;is considered a product&#xa0;'Picasso'</h2>Spiegel isn't a technical founder (someone who writes lines of code) like Google's Larry Page or Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. And his company doesn't make decisions based on data, ignoring a&#xa0;fundamental&#xa0;tenet&#xa0;of Silicon Valley's engineering-driven companies.Instead, Snap operates more like a creative shop where Spiegel obsesses over the product. As one person who has worked there explained: If you imagined a movie director starting a company with artists flowing in and out, that's what Snap's office vibe is like.Spiegel's emulation of Steve Jobs has been much remarked upon, with the 26-year-old Snap CEO sharing the late Apple founder's passion for showmanship, secrecy and suspense when it comes to creating products.&#xa0;But Spiegel isn't just another Jobs imitator. He has a proven&#xa0;multiple times that he can invent hit products that set industry trends. And like Jobs, he has some fiercely loyal followers who believe he's the real deal."Admirers say Spiegel is as good at building products as Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs," <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/5/9/11594144/evan-spiegel-snapchat">Recode's Kurt Wagner writes</a>. "And if you think that's hyperbole, you should talk to several of the sources we spoke to for this story, who casually likened him to Picasso."<h2>Radical-sounding ideas that have proven to be right</h2>Throughout Snap's short, five year history, Spiegel has made a series of decisions that seemed crazy at first but proved to be right. Consider:<ul><li>Before Snap, the internet was permanent. Every tweet, message or photo was&#xa0;documented forever on sites like Google and Facebook - even the unflattering ones. Snap single-handedly blew that up, introducing&#xa0;the notion of ephemerality. Whether it's teens regularly culling&#xa0;their Instagram accounts of posts that are more&#xa0;than a week old, or the bevvy of messaging apps designed for self-destructing communications, Snap's idea is now increasingly the norm.</li><li>Snap popularized&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/evan-spiegel-snapchat-record-video-portrait-vertical-2015-6">vertical video</a>,&#xa0;a format that makes much more sense on phones. Horizontal video, the so-called "landscape" mode that you watch TV shows and movies in, was the undisputed&#xa0;standard for video until Snap came along. Now a growing number of publishers, advertisers and even online video rivals like YouTube have latched on to videos that are shot in vertical mode.</li><li>Turning down a roughly $4 billion acquisition offer from Facebook turned out to be smart. It's not easy to refuse an offer from Mark Zuckerberg (just ask the founders of Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus), especially when the offer is multiple billions of dollars. But three years later, Spiegel's&#xa0;company is already worth about five times Facebook's offering price, and if it IPOs at $4o billion, Snap will&#xa0;be worth 10 time that.</li><li>He's re-thinking the shape of&#xa0;photos and videos from squares to circles. The idea has yet to be proven, but Spiegel's logic is sound.&#xa0;"The video [Snap's Spectacle sunglasses]&#xa0;records is circular, more like human vision," <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/snapchat-releases-first-hardware-product-spectacles-1474682719">WSJ's &#xa0;Seth Stevenson writes</a>. "Spiegel argues that rectangles are an unnecessary vestige of printing photos on sheets of paper."</li></ul><h2>Snap doesn't have just one hit product - it has at least&#xa0;six</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>When Snap launched, it looked like a fad. It was&#xa0;considered a sexting tool for college students that made lewd photos disappear. But a lot of red-hot apps that fail to keep innovating die shortly after launch: Yo, Ello, Meerkat; even Pokemon GO has quickly lost its cool.Instead of riding&#xa0;out its one smash hit, Snap launched a series of new products that kept users sticking around.<ul><li>Snaps. In &#xa0;2010, Snap launched with its flagship feature, disappearing photo and video messages. Now, more than 1 billion snaps are viewed every day. Video views on Snap have grown more than 350% in the last year to more than&#xa0;10 billion daily views.</li><li>Stories. In October 2013, Snap allowed users to create strings of photos and videos that disappear in 24 hours, called Stories. Stories are now viewed by 10-20 million Snappers per day.</li><li>Discover. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-launches-new-discovery-feature-2015-1">Snap launched Discover</a>, a section for media publications to post articles, in January 2015. Now 100 million Snappers view it every month. That's vastly lower than the number of people who are snapping back and forth each day, so you&#xa0;could argue Discover isn't a hit. But it accomplished an important goal for Snap: It made&#xa0;the media infatuated with it. This worked for Facebook when it began driving traffic to publishers from its NewsFeed. Mark Zuckerberg had reportedly been upset that journalists were infatuated with Twitter. So <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/buzzfeed-facebook-rumor-2014-2">BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti apparently advised him</a>&#xa0;to"show them how much traffic you can drive. That will cure the journalists of their attachment to Twitter, and get better press for Facebook."&#xa0;</li><li>Filters. Launched in December 2014, users now view snaps with geofilters more than 1 billion times per day.</li><li>Lenses and Messaging are also popular on Snap. Even sponsored lenses that Snap makes money from are getting a decent amount of user interaction. For example, Taco Bell's Cinco de Mayo taco-face selfie lens was viewed 224 million times.&#xa0;</li></ul>Of course, not everything Snap has launched has taken off. For example, Snap tried launching SnapCash,&#xa0;a Venmo-like service, and it has tried a few in-app payment features that never went mainstream. But the company had enough hits to prove it's no one-trick pony."One of the company's great attributes is their willingness to put out a lot of product," Snap investor Mitch Lasky told Recode. "Evan's got a lot of interesting ideas and he's absolutely fearless about putting them out there. If they don't work, so be it."<h2>Facebook's&#xa0;paranoia</h2>A major indicator of Snap's potential upside is Facebook's reaction to it. At first, things started out cordial.Zuckerberg emailed Spiegel in November 2013 to say he was a fan of his app.<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>Then, within weeks of meeting Spiegel and his cofounder Bobby Murphy, Zuckerberg launched a near-Snap clone called Poke.&#xa0;The app failed shortly after it launched.One year later, reports surfaced that Facebook had made an offer to purchase Snap for billions of dollars, but Snap declined.&#xa0;Since then, Facebook has launched more than half a dozen apps and features that resemble Snap.&#xa0;The Verge put together <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/10/11395428/facebook-copying-snapchat-timeline">a timeline of all the times Facebook&#xa0;has tried to copy Snap</a>. It lists seven instances total, excluding the most recent cloning examples, such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-vs-snapchat-stories-2016-8">Facebook's August&#xa0;launch of Instagram Stories</a>, which mimics Snap's stories features down to its very&#xa0;name, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-live-masks-snapchat-like-selfie-video-filters-2016-10">"Live Masks,"</a> Snap-like face filters which Facebook announced in October.Snap&#xa0;seems to be the only real thorn in Facebook's side, catering to a younger teen and 20-something&#xa0;audience that Facebook would love to have. And Facebook has a history of waging&#xa0;war on any product it deems a threat. &#xa0;For example, when Google launched its&#xa0;social media platform, Google Plus, Zuckerberg called an all-hands meeting and put the company on "lockdown," with employees encouraged to work around the clock to defeat the competition."You know, one of my favorite Roman orators ended every speech with the phrase Carthago delenda est. 'Carthage must be destroyed,'"&#xa0;<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/how-mark-zuckerberg-led-facebooks-war-to-crush-google-plus">Zuckerberg told employees</a>.&#xa0;"For some reason I think of that now."<h2>How Snap looks compared to&#xa0;Twitter and Facebook</h2>Based on some of the data we have about&#xa0;Snap (the company has not yet publicly filed its prospectus), it's fair to say Snap isn't in the same league as Facebook at the time of its IPO&#xa0;- though Snap is seeking a valuation of less than half of Facebook's.If Snap were to go public today, it would have significantly fewer users than the 900 million monthly actives Facebook had at its IPO. It would also have about one-tenth Facebook's revenue (roughly $350 million versus Facebook's $3 billion-$4 billion). &#xa0;Facebook ended its first day of trading with a $104 billion market cap, about 26X revenue. Although&#xa0;Facebook's value was cut in half four months later, it rebounded back to its IPO price once the company mastered mobile monetization (Facebook generated almost no mobile revenue when it went public).<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>But Snap is only five years old&#xa0;and Facebook was eight when it was listed. When Facebook was&#xa0;Snap's age though, it was generating <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-wont-be-a-multi-billion-dollar-company-for-many-years-2010-3">roughly $650 million</a>, about double that of Snap.If you compare Snap to Twitter, things look a little rosier. Twitter was seven when it went public and had about the same number of active users then (~230 million&#xa0;per month) as Snap likely has now. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-02/snapchat-passes-twitter-in-daily-usage">Snap has already passed Twitter in terms of DAUs</a>, according to Bloomberg. Twitter had a<a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/key-numbers-to-know-before-twitters-ipo/">bout 100 million daily active users</a> when it IPO'd. It generated about $665 million in 2013, less than Snap is hoping to make in its sixth year.Twitter's stock has been getting hammered lately on reports of layoffs, stalled growth, and lack of acquisition interest. The $27 billion market cap it had in 2013 has been sliced to about $12 billion today. And Twitter still has not managed to turn a profit.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div><h2>What will Snap&#xa0;become? </h2>Can Snap become a Facebook or Google-size behemoth with more than 1 billion users? If so, then a $40 billion valuation isn't outrageous.Or will it become Twitter, which tried to chase Facebook's scale&#xa0;but never quite nailed&#xa0;the experience&#xa0;for the masses?Snap, like Twitter, isn't easy for non-millennials to immediately grasp. And Snap will need to attract older audiences if it wants to keep growing.<div></div>Snap could also become something else entirely, ranging from a $20 billion messaging app like WhatsApp to a $15 billion media company like&#xa0;Viacom, to a much smaller camera company like $1.4 billion&#xa0;GoPro.Those are a lot of unknowns for public investors. But because the company is young, there could also be&#xa0;significant potential upside, and&#xa0;Spiegel has&#xa0;consistently proven that he isn't someone to underestimate."When Snap started out, I thought it seemed trivial. I was completely wrong,"&#xa0;Chamath Palihapitiya, a&#xa0;startup investor who is not invested in Snapc&#xa0;<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-05-26/evan-spiegel-reveals-plan-to-turn-snapchat-into-a-real-business">told Bloomberg</a>."I don't think anyone saw coming what they are building."Visit Markets Insider for constantly updated market quotes for individual stocks, ETFs, indices, commodities and currencies traded around the world. <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/">Go Now!</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/infected-honey-bees-in-the-us-are-dying-2016-10">Scientists have discovered why American honey bees are turning into zombies</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Q0c3AzeDoFdIxrXSBTCcR8lfdcuwyQPu" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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