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Earlier this year, Evan Spiegel, Chief Executive Officer of Snap, was pressuring his collaborators to launch the new design of the Snapchat app.
Spiegel ordered the modification of the design unexpectedly at the end of 2017. After a visit to China, he decided that the courier application had to change. because of the trends he observed there.
It was a typical Spiegel decree, people report this episode: an instinctive decision made without consulting the majority of the team and presented to all as irrevocable.
He set a strict timetable and rejected the concerns of several leaders. and the designers, who said the tests were not positive. Spiegel rejected calls for further delay.
It was a fiasco. Users have criticized the changes, which began in February. In the quarter following the new design, Snap lost users for the first time.
The company's revenues, which depend on advertising, continued to increase. But the price of its shares has dropped about 76% from the February peak. Snap's market value increased from $ 25.5 billion ($ 98.7 billion) to $ 6.5 billion.
The popularity of the application among young people and celebrities received for their parent company $ 31 billion ($ 120 billion) of shares after its IPO in March 2017.
The application, which allows users to send -photo shots and videos that can disappear a few seconds after the recipient has seen – now seem able to become a competitor of Facebook.
The fiasco of the design change has added to the already glaring problems of the company and there are doubts about the ability of the direction Spiegel's instinct will be enough to take out the business of the crisis.
His style – based on instinct, taking control of all the details and ignoring opposing points of view – worked very well during Snap's years of ascension, founded in 2011.
Spiegel stated that his expanded focus was to become red business next year. But he lost his credibility on Wall Street, says Youssef Squali, an badyst at Robinson Humphrey, an investment bank at SunTrust.
Unlike many techies, Spiegel, 28, does not rely much on data badysis. majority of their decisions. He considers himself a designer, say of former employees, and often reacts better to presentations based on emotional reactions to products and company strategies than to the numbers.
Spiegel often ignores the opinions of those around him. He insisted that investments in hardware, in the form of glbades capable of recording videos called Shows, despite the concerns of the then Vice President Finance.
The Shows were a failure and the company recorded 40 million dollars (about R $). 155 million) to the detriment of the project.
Spiegel also excludes counsel from certain decisions. In mid-2016, he rejected the moves of Mark Zuckerberg, who was interested in the acquisition of Snap, and did not give full advice in this regard. In 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported that Zuckerbeg had offered $ 3 billion ($ 11.6 billion) to the company.
At the same time, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) appeared without notice. Employees ask them about how the company collects and reports user statistics.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation investigates Snap's revelations about Facebook's Instagram contest, which mimicked Snapchat's popular features [19659002] The SEC, the FBI, and the Justice Department refused to comment.
Snap is also involved in an arbitration process with his former Vice President in charge of Growth, Anthony Pompliano, who accuses him of falsely dismissing him. because he had said he was worried about the disclosure of false indicators that had deceived investors before his IPO.
The Snap became the target of two shareholder-led collective actions, based on Pompliano's revelations
co-funded by Spiegel The Snap when he studied design at Stanford University, where he worked as a party organizer for fraternities.
From the outset, he exercised control
He generally reports defects that he finds in the software and stated that he was surprised to find that his name was not on the list of most senior staff large number of bugs. After that, the name started to appear on the list, often in the first place.
Many employees saw Spiegel as an isolated leader. In the company's new office in Santa Monica, Spiegel is accompanied by two badistants on the top floor of what employees call an "ivory tower".
For the design change, the company turned a building located in Venice, California into a seat. Engineers were tasked with turning it into a Thanksgiving holiday.
Spiegel's goal is to prepare the application as soon as students return from the holiday season. The team failed to reach the goal. On the insistence of Spiegel, Snap issued the release in February
. Users reacted negatively. More than 1.2 million people signed a petition calling for a return to their previous project.
The reaction was to promise a reform of the design reform, facilitating navigation, which took place in May. Snap also aims to offset the years of underinvestment in data collection and strengthen the information gathered, which was told to people.
Revenues increased to nearly 298 million dollars (1.1 billion rand). ) in the third quarter, an increase of 43% over 2017.
Spiegel acknowledged that changes had been made to the design, and there are signs that he is changing his style. "I do not think there is a single way to earn as general manager," said Michael Jones, former general manager of MySpace, the network. "It's clear that Evan is now trying to behave in a certain way, and I hope that he will find a match between the market and the product and will continue to promote Snap's growth." , and that this style of management works. "
The Wall Street Journal, translated from the English by Paulo Migliacci
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