Snapchat has some growing up to do

Snap is hot. The California-based company continues to evolve Snapchat, an app that continues to be one of the few genuine smashes from a company that isn't Facebook or Google. It's just launched its first hardware product, Spectacles, whose rollout has been widely praised as inventive.

On Tuesday, reports emerged that it had filed for its much-anticipated IPO, which could value the young company as high as $25 billion. That'd be the biggest tech IPOs in recent memory.

Going public brings renewed scrutiny, however, and some have questioned whether or not Snap - which may or may not be profitable - can significantly grow beyond teens and young adults.

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As this chart from Statista shows, there's some validity to that concern. While Snapchat is approaching Facebook levels of popularity among young smartphone owners in the US, its usage has traditionally dropped a cliff as you go up in age.

That said, those figures are growing, the company is diversifying, and the many young people who use Snapchat are really into it. Maybe $25 billion won't seem so crazy in a few years. Or maybe it'll go the way of Twitter.

Statista