Snapchat’s messages may disappear but its owner’s flotation plans are fast crystallising, with Snap Inc setting itself a valuation of up to $22.2 billion (£17.8 billion).
As its management works on plans for an investor roadshow, Snap has valued its shares at $14 to $16, insiders said.
Even that is at the lower end of expectations but it could make Snap the biggest technology stock market listing since Alibaba raised a record $25 billion in a New York float in 2014.
Snap, which only launched its disappearing messages app in 2012 and generates most of its revenues from advertising, has since diversified into a camera company and started selling $130 video-recording glasses that shoot first-person footage.
Revenues surged to $404.5 million last year from $58.7 million in 2015, but Snap posted a net loss of $514.6 million against $372.9 million a year earlier, and its user growth slowed in the second half of 2016.