Snapchat has changed Venice, Los Angeles, and it isn't changing back

latimes.com

12 points·blondie9x··9 comments

I'm always amazed at the employee counts for Twitter, Snapchat, etc. 1,500 people just seems astounding for a chat application; understandably, there will be other departments than engineering, but I'm still left amazed.

Read: a successful business in a high-paying industry in the middle of a bubble raises rent prices in the area around it...you could have written this story about San Francisco, New York, etc.

*Venice Beach

Only tourists this area "Venice Beach".

For the rest of the world, Venice without further qualification means a place in Italy. Some additional context would have been nice.

Exactly, it wasn't until I got to the 7th paragraph--which mentioned Santa Monica--that I realized that the article was in the LA Times and was not talking about Italy. I'll admit I was confused by a Rastafarian storefront owner being interviewed, but I've never been to Italy so for as much as I know it may be plausible...

“[Snapchat has] to find that balance without killing the soul of Venice,”

They definitely have killed it, and not coz of real estate. Glance anywhere and you'll find pursed lips, cocked heads, eyes wide, trying to capture the perfect moment... on camera. Each person the star of their own social media fantasyland.

When the fad passes, it will.

> The enormous popularity of the self-destructing-message app Snapchat has helped its developer, Snap Inc., grow to more than 1,500 employees.

Ok, even at a conservative average salary of $70,000 / employee, it works out to $ 105 Million in salary / pay alone (per year), for these 1,500. That's not counting cost of office space, travel, marketing expenses etc.

So, my question. What is SnapChat's business model? How do they make money???

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