Snapchat ratings plummet after Evan Spiegel's poor India' comment

After Snapchat’s CEO stated his disinterest in expanding the business to “poor countries” like India, the rating of the app dropped to a “single star” from an apparent “five star” on the App Store.

According to the info on the App Store, the Customer Ratings for the current version of the app was a “single star” and all versions rating was “one and half star” as on Sunday morning.

The rating for the app on the Android Play Store was a four-star (based on over 11 million ratings).

This whole scenario was a result of US-based news Variety on Saturday quoted Snapchat’s ex-employee Anthony Pompliano as saying that the company CEO Evan Spiegel stated in September 2015 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 lashed out at the statement from the CEO. As ratings plummeted, 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?" an user wrote on the App Store, condemning the CEO.

Some users also 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".

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

In a report Forbes published 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 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.