New Delhi: A day after news broke out regarding Snapchat`s CEO Evan Spiegel`s disinterest in expanding the business to "poor countries" like India, the rating of the popular app dropped to a "single star" from an apparent "five star" on the App Store. Snapchat users in India have been deleting the app after learning about the comment allegedly made by Snap Inc. CEO in 2015.

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According to the app info on App Store, the "Customer Ratings" of the current version of the app was "single star" (based on 6,099 ratings) and all versions rating was "one and half star" (based on 9,527 ratings) as on Sunday morning.

The rating for the app on Android Play Store was "four star" (based on 11,932,996 ratings).

The bashing started when US-based news website Variety on Saturday quoted Snapchat`s ex-employee Anthony Pompliano as saying that company CEO Evan Spiegel in September 2015 told him that "the app is only for rich people. I don`t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain".

Indians did not take the comment lightly and took to social media to lash out at the statement from the CEO. As the ratings of the app dropped, the criticism of the CEO and the app increased.

"First of all, I didn`t even want to give any freakin` star to this app. Evan (CEO of Snapchat) shows how stupid he is by saying this. I bet 3/4th of his company is run by Indian employees. If he didn`t want to expand it to poor countries, then why is this app free? Why didn`t he put any charges on it?" a user wrote on App Store, condemning the CEO.

Some users wrote, "Poor India & Spain need better than Snapchat", "Good bye, My Snapchat Account and Snap Inc. You`ll be product of gone by era and derision", and "Poor Evan Spiegel".


Twitter reactions

The app was also trolled on Twitter. #boycottsnapchat became the most trending hashtag on Twitter overnight.

"I haven`t seen any Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians etc Tweets yet. Thanks @Snapchat for Uniting us," a user tweeted.

"I was addicted to @Snapchat but I love my country more than this app. Let`s see how you earn without Indians. @evanspiegel #boycottsnapchat," another user wrote on twitter.

Some users even flagged the app for hateful content and left a message, "Dear @snapchatsupport, flagged you for hateful content. #boycottsnapchat".

According to a report in Forbes on Thursday, Facebook`s photo-sharing app Instagram surpassed Snapchat in daily active users of "Stories" feature, though the format was first launched by Snapchat in 2013.

Instagram`s "Stories" feature was now used by more than 200 million people every day -- an increase of 50 million since January.

On the other hand, Snapchat who launched the "Stories" format in October 2013, had 161 million daily active users in February.

"Stories" feature is an ephemeral chain of photo and video clips with filters and special effects. More recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also introduced the feature, imitating Snapchat.

Snapchat has more than four million users in India.


Snapchat comes to CEO's rescue, refutes ''disgruntled'' employee's claim


 Amidst the ongoing backlash on Twitter regarding Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel`s recent remark on expansion in India, the parent company `Snap`s` attorneys rubbished claims while stating that no such remark was made.Denying an employee`s claims of Snapchat being termed as a `rich people`s app`, the attorneys while lashing out at the former said he is a `disgruntled employee fired for poor performance`.


"The simple fact is that he knows exactly nothing about Snap`s current metrics. He and his lawyers are - not to put too fine a point on matters - just making things up," said the attorneys, as reported by Variety.The CEO had earlier while discussing the expansion plans in a meeting allegedly dismissed an employee`s concern of the slow growth rate of the app in India, stating that it was only meant for the `rich people`.


According to one of the employees, Spiegel had during a meeting said, "This app is only for rich people. I don`t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain."After reports of Spiegel`s alleged claims of Snapchat being a `rich people`s app` surfaced, the Indian users took to Twitter to express their dissent over the comment, thus paving the way for widespread negativity.Soon after Variety published the alleged comment, the app`s ratings on Google play store witnessed a sharp decline, a 4.4 to a 3.6 rating. Furthermore, the number of one-star rating by the users shot up from 39,102 to 192,906 in just 24 hours.


With IANS/ANI Inputs