Ephemeral messaging app Snapchat seems to be ready for an initial public offering, but the company's plans are still currently under wraps.
"We really need an IPO—we have a plan for that," said Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat, at Re/code's Code conference in California on May 26.
Spiegel's comments are the first time that the $15 billion startup has indicated that an IPO is under consideration by the company.
The Snapchat CEO understandably did not disclose more information regarding the IPO plans of the startup. However, Spiegel did mention that Snapchat now has almost 100 million active users daily in the app's developed markets.
Spiegel added that what is important to know is that 65 percent of the daily users are creating content on the app, which shows the investments that Snapchat users are pouring into the app. Users are also reportedly watching over 2 billion videos daily.
Founded back in 2011, Snapchat is a popular mobile app among young users that allows them to take and send pictures and videos that automatically delete themselves after a set period of time. The company reported back in August 2014 that the app already had over 100 million users from all over the world, with another report released in January stating that the active user count was already nearing 200 million.
However, Snapchat has not been able to translate the impressive growth into revenue. Last January, the company said that it will focus on generating cash by serving advertisements to its users.
According to Spiegel, however, the company will not be inserting advertisements into the personal conversations between users and will instead only place them in the service's "Stories" feature, which collects pictures and videos from certain locations or events.
There have already been speculations that Snapchat would be going for an IPO after it famously rejected an offer to be acquired by Facebook for $3 billion. In addition, Imran Khan, who helped China-based e-commerce company Alibaba in its massive IPO, became part of Snapchat last year.
When asked whether Spiegel would be open to another offer for a takeover, he bluntly said, "No."
Spiegel also expressed his concern that the technology industry is currently in a bubble, with the bursting of that bubble imminent.
"I think people are making riskier investments and I think there will be a correction," said Spiegel, adding that this "bursting of the bubble" is something that the company considers as it plans for its future.
The value of Snapchat has largely increased over the past year, boosted primarily by a $20 million investment that it received from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which pulled up the company's value to $10 billion. A $200 million investment by Alibaba into Snapchat then brought the startup's value up to $15 billion.
