Even the tech world is not immune to the classic case of mistaken identity.
A week after Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel supposedly made a remark about the app not expanding to "poor countries like India," angry Indians decided to give the app one-star reviews. While it was the users' right to do so, they mistakenly rated the the wrong app: Snapdeal, an Indian e-commerce company that is battling other issues.
Indian Consumers Snap: What Happened?
This is how the confusion happened.
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel allegedly made a bad remark about India. This was according to ex-Snapchat employee Anthony Pompliano.
"This app is only for rich people. I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain," Spiegel allegedly said.
The "poor" India remark went viral and caused an uproar that was swift and angry. Indians expressed their feelings in many ways: many left one-star reviews in app stores; Twitter got flooded with #BoycottSnapchat tweets; while others went on to uninstall the app from their phones. Snapchat has denied the allegations, saying the remarks were not even made.
Pompliano recounted Spiegel's remarks in a statement for a lawsuit he filed against Snapchat, where he claims his former company fired him after he blew the whistle for manipulating its growth metrics. Snapchat has dismissed him as a "disgruntled employee fired for poor performance."
Pompliano says Snapchat inflated its IPO valuation with fake user statistics. Snapchat went public on March 2 and its value immediately soared to $28 billion as shares soared to 44 percent.
Snapdeal Got Caught In The Crossfire
Unfortunately for Snapdeal, the rage spilled into its backyard through no fault of its own except for having a similar name.
According to a report, irate users gave Snapdeal unflattering one-star reviews in the app store. Indians also called on for everyone to uninstall the app.
This is the second wave of angry customers that Snapdeal has to deal with. In 2015, customers were also up in arms against the online retailer's then-ambassador, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan. Khan voiced concerns about the rising intolerance in India. Snapdeal was forced to drop Khan during the controversy.
Also, Snapdeal's management has reportedly figured in a complaint filed by a businessman who claims that Snapdeal stole his idea. The Delhi court summoned the company's CEO, COO, and former CFO.
The management itself already has cracks as executives began leaving the company. On February, CEO Govind Rajan quit; he's the CEO of Snapdeal's mobile payments arm Freecharge, which was acquired by Snapdeal in 2015.
