
People in India are angry at Snapchat but they are boycotting a wrong app - innavation
http://snapchatdaily.com/2017/04/17/delete-snapchat-india/
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ultimoo
As an Indian, it bothers me how sensitive, insecure, and thin skinned India is
as a country. Every time someone makes a comment on something controversial,
or makes a joke on India millions of armchair warriors will get their pride
hurt and be up in arms boycotting and protesting it on facebook, reddit, etc.
(sometimes there are real life protests too). It's so silly really.

On the contrary, countries like the US, Australia, etc. are far more tolerant
of public remarks like this. Had Evan said that the French are too stupid to
use Snapchat (for example), no one would have even batted an eye.

~~~
shouldbworking
You are probably right. In the same sentence as India he also mentioned Spain
but nobody there seems to care.

I know nothing about Indian and Spanish culture so I can't speculate on the
reason.

~~~
legolas2412
Snapchat is down to 1 star in spain too. Apparently, they care.

~~~
clock_tower
When I first heard about this story, I thought that "poor countries like
Spain" was the funniest thing I'd heard all week. (If you think Spain's poor,
I hope you never witness the heartbreaking poverty of Taiwan and South Korea,
its rough peers by GDP-per-capita.) But I can certainly see how it was a lot
less funny in Spain itself...

~~~
darpa_escapee
> "poor countries like Spain" was the funniest thing I'd heard all week.

I take it you aren't familiar with the term PIGS[1]. "Poor countries like
Spain" is a common sentiment in Europe.

> PIGS or PIIGS or PIIGGS is an acronym used in economics and finance. The
> PIGS acronym originally refers, often derogatorily, to the economies of the
> Southern European countries of Portugal, Italy, Greece, and
> Spain.[1][2][3][4][5] During the European debt crisis, the term was also
> increasingly used to refer to the economies of Portugal, Ireland, Greece,
> and Spain, four EU member states that were unable to refinance their
> government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks on their own during the
> crisis

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_(economics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_\(economics\))

~~~
clock_tower
Do you seriously think that anyone on this website doesn't know the term PIGS?
Do you think that I wasn't alive four years ago?

And the PIGS weren't the poorest countries in Europe; they were the most over-
leveraged. Spain is much better-off than Bulgaria and Romania -- and certainly
much better-off than a genuinely poor country.

~~~
darpa_escapee
> Do you seriously think that anyone on this website doesn't know the term
> PIGS? Do you think that I wasn't alive four years ago?

If you'd like to explain why you took offense to my comment, please do. I'd
like to foster discussion where people do not take personal offense to my
words on a message board when I didn't mean to offend anyone. I'd legitimately
appreciate any feedback you have.

> And the PIGS weren't the poorest countries in Europe;

I'm not talking about objective reality, but about popular public perception.

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sirius87
Much of the outrage originated on Twitter with influential accounts like this
one[1] commandeering their followers to follow their nationalistic call to
action. Many messages on Twitter and Whatsapp came with detailed
instructions[2] on exactly what was to be done: 1) Install Snapchat 2) Leave a
review on the app store 3) Uninstall

These messages reached audiences that had never heard about Snapchat, and in
some cases, had never reviewed apps before.

This was a case of "manufactured outrage" by social influencers and the media,
and I think it showcases mob-like tendencies when it comes to subjects like
national pride. Many memes appeared cheering India's billionaires claiming
they'd buy out Snapchat. In normal circumstances, the billionaire class in
India is routinely accused of stashing money in Swiss bank accs.

What a glorious mess.

[1]
[https://twitter.com/SirJadeja/status/853314615018758145](https://twitter.com/SirJadeja/status/853314615018758145)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT7rBxEa0LU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT7rBxEa0LU)

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mynegation
Snapchat is for people who are able to figure out its god-awful UX. And most
of them are too young to have their own money. So it is either implausible or
downright ironic.

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cpncrunch
I find it somewhat amusing that anyone would even consider snapchat being for
"rich people". I've never used it myself, but I get the impression it is just
a kids app, and not a particularly interesting one at that. Perhaps they make
their money from boring, bratty rich kids.

~~~
derefr
Not so much "rich people" as "people in countries with a high wealth
_baseline_ , where even kids with no jobs have smartphones and data plans for
no useful reason."

~~~
cpncrunch
Yes, "rich" compared to India, although there is increasing wealth in India,
and my SaaS product now has quite a lot of income from India right now.
(Admittedly it is B2B rather than B2C, and targets online tutoring which is a
very large market in India).

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smenyp
This is nothing particular to India. On the day Snapchat went public,
investors in the US bought the wrong company - Snap Interactive. These were
investors, who were putting their money at risk!

Point is, this happens everywhere and people are irrational.

[http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/02/snap-interactive-shares-
brief...](http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/02/snap-interactive-shares-briefly-
popped-ahead-of-snaps-ipo.html)

~~~
clock_tower
I've heard there's also a penny stock with the symbol NEST, which shoots up
every time Nest (which is privately held) is in the news...

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Karupan
It is amazing what mob mentality can do on the web these days. Regardless of
the authenticity of the news, I saw the number of reviews for Snapchat on the
iOS store go from around 4000 to ~60K! That to me is terrifying.

A faceless mob can ruin your business if one "social influencer" chooses to.

~~~
sirius87
This is what worries me. And I do hope app stores start protecting apps
against these organised campaigns. In this case, even a simple CAPTCHA
would've worked since people who aren't tech savvy were following step-by-step
instructions on how to rate apps. An additional step would've easily thrown
people off.

It wouldn't surprise me if companies began leaking news stories that would
trigger fiery reactions against competitors. For e.g. Facebook could keep
Snapchat from ever expanding in India if it were to covertly portray Snap/Evan
as disrespectful towards Indians. Social media influencers could profit from
providing back-channel services to corporates.

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anaganisk
And best of all, that "leak" was made by a former pissed of employee, and our
people who fall for Clibait headlines without evem reading the news have
proved we are idiots in large numbers with smartphones. Snapchat CEO can file
for a defamation suit on all FB pages spreading false info and can win it
hands down.

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pansinghkoder
Judge a country's wealth when you are earning profit

~~~
johnmarcus
the title should have read "snapchat ceo did NOT dis India, a disgruntled
former employee did."

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qq66
Interesting that the official response from Snapchat never denies the quote.

