A single tweet from reality star Kylie Jenner caused Snap Inc. shares to plummet on Thursday.
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Snap shares fell more than 8% in trading, one day after Jenner, 20, tweeted that she has stopped using Snapchat, the company’s core platform. The plunge erased the equivalent of more than $1 billion in market value for the struggling company.
“Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad,” Jenner wrote on Twitter to more than 24 million followers. Her post received more than 250,000 likes and more than 47,000 retweets as of early Thursday afternoon.
Jenner’s post about Snapchat comes amid a wave of criticism on social media platforms related to the company’s recent redesign of its core app. A petition to “remove the new SnapChat update” has amassed more than 1.2 million signatures on Change.org. Jenner previously questioned the Snapchat update on Feb. 9.
The reality star, who is best known for starring on “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” later clarified her opinion in another Twitter post.
“Still love you tho snap … my first love,” she wrote.
Snap recently separated the Snapchat platform into two main screens – a “friends feed” with content from a user’s contacts and a newsfeed with content from publishers and celebrities. Company executives say the update was meant to streamline the app amid slowing user growth, which has weighed on earnings in recent months.
Snap shares are roughly flat from their IPO price of $17 per share. Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel received $637.8 million in compensation from the company’s IPO, according to a recent SEC filing.
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