The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Facebook FB prepared a $3 billion bid for Snapchat, but was rejected by the company.
Snapchat is a rapidly growing messaging service where users take photos, record videos and text. Users then set a time limit of one to 10 seconds for how long the recipient can view the “snap.” The service has not generated any revenue, but has become extremely popular amongst teenagers and adults.
Facebook is interested in Snapchat to diversify its business across several social media and messaging platforms, as its Facebook platform appears to be losing users from the core teenager market. Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion.
Evan Spiegel, the company's 23-year-old co-founder indicated he is not interested in an acquisition or an investment until early next year. Spiegel is hoping to grow the company in terms of users in order to command an even higher valuation.
Facebook is competing with Tencent, a diverse Chinese Internet to acquire Snapchat. The Chinese company offered to lead an investment that would value the company at $4 billion.
Snapchat reported its July daily usage includes 350 million “snaps”, up from 200 million in June.
Snapchat marks the second major profiled company to decline being acquired by Facebook. Earlier this year, Israeli-based mapping service Waze tied knots with Google GOOG after declining Facebook's offer.
