First it was Instagram that went down for $1bn last year. Could Snapchat be the next acquisition-victim in the social media industry? You never know, it just could be.

But what is this Snapchat?

Most of us are so much into Facebook, Twitter and Google+ that the other small fish in the background practically get gobbled up. Except this one, that's got the industry shaking and the parents of tweens twitching their eyebrows in despair.

Like Instagram, Snapchat is a photo sharing app where users, mostly teens are trying to have some racy fun by sending and sharing videos and photos. So what's new in this? The catch is that the teens can now play safe from sneaky parents, because the photos are self-destructive!

Founded as a startup by a set of Stanford students-Evan Speigl and Bobby Murphy, a year back, it's become an instant rage among the 20s-something with as many as 30 million messages being processed per day, according to Snapchat's insider data.

It became an instant hit, so much so, that Facebook CEO Zuckerburg teamed up to design a rival app- Facebook Poke to woo the youth. In fact, there was much hue and cry by Randi Zuckerburg about the secret photo leak of private family moments.

Both these sexting apps allows senders to send pictures and short videos that get self destructed within 10 seconds. But there are no guarantees that your screenshots, captured by the viewer, are totally in safe hands. The sender does get notified in case the recipient takes a shot though.

Buzzfeed's Katie Notopoulos, revealed this major security risk of Snapchat. Its one of the darker sides of Internet that has parents concerned. The Snapchat team has tried to underplay the scope of damage this can cause actually. In a blog, the founders clarified their vision behind founding this app "There is value in the ephemeral...great conversations are magical. That's because they are shared, enjoyed but not saved."

While the affirmation of the threat to Facebook has been made, the other social media rivals like Google, Twitter or even a vacillating Yahoo can easily capitalize on Snapchat's success by collaborating with it or even taking it over. Who knows what's cooking behind the scenes really!

There's nothing wrong in the teens having some fun but its a fertile ground for all kinds of con-artists trying to pick up gals. Now that's a cause for concern.
Let us know your thoughts about this latest sexting newbie on the block.

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