Fans of Snapchat float fall for dating app site by mistake

Traders eagerly awaiting social media app Snapchat’s $25 billion (£19.9 billion) listing have erroneously piled into shares in an unrelated New York start-up.

In a case of mistaken identity, shares in Snap Interactive, which makes dating apps like FirstMet.com and is valued at about $321.5 million, have almost doubled in value since Friday.

The surge comes a week after Snapchat filed for its hotly-anticipated initial public offering through parent Snap Inc.

The flotation, set for March, will raise $4 billion and will be the biggest listing since Alibaba’s in 2014.

Co-founders Evan Spiegel (pictured with model Miranda Kerr) and Bobby Murphy, already worth about $4 billion, could see their fortunes balloon.

Excitement for the listing is building despite scepticism about the camera-phone app’s ownership structure and slowing growth.

It has also warned it “may never achieve profitability”.

Snap Interactive, which claims to have helped “hundreds of millions of users make meaningful friendships”, is not the first to benefit from traders jumping the gun.

In 2013, shares in Tweeter Home Entertainment rose more than 1000% after being confused for soon-to-list Twitter.

A year later, Facebook’s Oculus VR buy sent Oculus Vision Tech shares 90% higher.