Snapchat Loses $800 Million After Posting Offensive Ad of Rihanna
After an offensive ad circulated on Snapchat, Rihanna took to her Instagram story on Thursday to call out the company for making light of domestic violence. When the stock market closed the day she made her comment, Snapchat’s stock was down nearly 4% from its market value, equivalent to nearly $577 million in loss. Today, the company’s stock continued to decrease to the point of the company losing close to $800 million in value.
Rihanna’s criticism of the ad came after public outcry against it. On Instagram Stories, she wrote, “Now SNAPCHAT I know you already know you ain't my fav app out there! But I'm just trying to figure out what the point was with this mess! I'd love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain't that dumb! You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV victims and made a joke of it!!! This isn't about my personal feelings, cause I don't have much of them...but all the women, children and men that have been victims of DV in the past and especially the ones who haven't made it out yet....you let us down! Shame on you. Throw the whole app-oligy away."
Snapchat made an apology earlier this week after facing backlash for the ad that depicted a “Would you rather?” scenario pitting Rihanna against her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown. The company said, “The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines. We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we become aware. We are sorry that this happened.” In addition to the apology, the company announced that they have reached out to the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) in order to educate the Snapchat staff on domestic abuse, and what would be appropriate or not to use for content.
This isn’t the first major loss that Snapchat has faced this year due to negative user reaction. Kylie Jenner tweeted her dislike to a new Snapchat update. This resulted in a loss of almost $1.3 billion, also from a drop in market value.
Related: How to Seek Help If You're in an Abusive Relationship
