Is the security breach a big deal? Yes. That’s a whole lot of names and numbers to get out in the open.


Has Snapchat handled the fallout well? No. This is one of the case studies, actually, where you just do the opposite of everything Snapchat’s done to this point to handle the fallout from a PR/crisis management perspective.


Will it matter? Probably not, and that’s probably a big reason why they don’t really care what the fallout is. Because Snapchat’s core customers - young people - don’t particularly care about their user names and phone numbers getting into the hands of hackers. That’s because they don’t particularly care about most things in general. (This is a gross oversimplification, of course, but it helps make for a tidier argument.)


What does it ultimately mean for Snapchat, then? Not much, probably, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. Snapchat’s challenge still remains a monumental one - making money. Exactly how the service plans on generating revenue without negatively impacting the user experience for its core customers - those young people who don’t particularly care about most things, especially advertisers -  is still a big mystery. And a big, big challenge.