Snapchat CEO called India 'a poor country' and now Indians are boycotting the app

Photo-sharing app Snapchat came under fire after its CEO Evan Spiegel allegedly said the app was only for rich people and doesn’t "want to expand in countries into poor countries like India and Spain." Snap Inc is now trying to regain lost ground denying, its CEO has made such a statement.



The quote came from a recently unredacted court complaint by Anthony Pompliano, who served as the company's growth lead for a few weeks in 2015. The former employee mentioned the exchange from a September 2015 meeting he had with Spiegel about the app's international growth plans.

In an attempt to mitigate the damage, a Snap spokesperson called Pompliano claim “ridiculous”. “Obviously, Snapchat is for everyone! It's available worldwide to download for free. Those words were written by a disgruntled former employee. We are grateful for our Snapchat community in India and around the world,” he added.

However, it seems that the statement is not helping the company much. Since Spiegel’s alleged statement was highlighted by Variety and other news outlets, it has caused uproar amongst the Indian populace who are now boycotting the app. Snapchats ratings have also taken a hit after people started uninstalling the app and giving it one-star ratings on the Google Play Store and the App Store. Many Indian took to Twitter to show their anger with photo sharing platform. Some even shared the images of themselves uninstalling the app from their smartphones with the #boycottSnapchat.

Here are some of the best tweets that show what Indian's had to say.

https://twitter.com/Desi_nigaa/status/853517253010214912

New nottification while deleting @Snapchat in India #boycottsnapchat pic.twitter.com/cNSEL18UAT

— Rosh (@TekiRosh) April 16, 2017

https://twitter.com/Shreyas_singh1/status/853294636290514944

https://twitter.com/Itz_Naveen/status/853595650541232134

https://twitter.com/BabajiKaThullu4/status/853655653000327168

To all my Indian bros and girls :

Why play with Dog filters when you have Real Dogs at home 😂😂#boycottsnapchat pic.twitter.com/5XSosxlqYW

— Mohan (@Mohan9999999) April 16, 2017

@evanspiegel (CEO,Snapchat) :- "The app is for rich people, Don't want to expand in poor countries like India."
.
Yogi Adityanath be like - pic.twitter.com/UWFQ6npQi8

— Aditya Sanjay Devkar (@i_am_devkar) April 16, 2017

Snapchat CEO @evanspiegel u r gona poor now. Uninstall snapchat with 1 star rating by all Indians. #boycottsnapchat #snapchatindia #Indian pic.twitter.com/AhbRwpWJtl

— Nitin Uploader (@NitinUploader) April 16, 2017

Snapchat to India :- pic.twitter.com/9boETSkOlT

— musa goglu zindabad (@TheOmarrization) April 16, 2017