Photo app a snap, owner tells parents

Snapchat was founded in 2011 and has more than 100 million users.

Ever wondered what Snapchat is but been too embarrassed to ask? Evan Spiegel, the photo messaging app's co-founder and chief executive, has come up with a parent's guide to the phenomenon.

Mr Spiegel released the surprisingly low-resolution YouTube clip What is Snapchat? this week, explaining the app with the help of a marker pen and pad of paper.

The 25-year-old, whose app is reported to be worth US$16 billion ($23.2 billion) said he was inspired to make the video after a conversation with friends who are parents.

Watch the video:

Snapchat was founded in 2011 and has more than 100 million users, but many parents are baffled by their children taking hundreds of seemingly pointless selfies.

The app, which allows users to send self-destructing images to one another, also had an unwanted reputation as a hotbed of "sexting" in its earlier days.

"They were so confused because they found their kids taking like a zillion pictures a day," Mr Spiegel said. "Pictures of things that their parents would never take pictures of."

However, the advance of high-quality camera phones and mobile internet meant sharing photos over social media had moved on.

Evan Spiegel speaks during the iHeartMedia Soundfront at iHeartMedia Headquarters on April 22. Photo / Getty Images

Whereas more established social networks such as Facebook used photos as a way of recording or remembering an event or special occasion, Snapchat was about the "instant expression" of what is happening in the present.

"Snapchat is to do with the way photographs have changed," Mr Spiegel said. "Historically, photographs have been used to save really important memories, major life moments, but today, with the advent of the mobile phone and connected camera, pictures are used for talking."