Delete By Default: Why More Snapchat-Like Messaging Is On Its Way

Last May, startup founder Steve Chung got 200 MBA students at Stanford University to try a new mobile messaging app he was working on. It was a social platform that let them send photos, videos and texts to one another, along with an odd side feature: messages that self-destructed after a few seconds, a la Snapchat. To Chung's surprise, the clever Stanford students found his app complicated and off-putting. The one thing they did like was the self-destructing, ephemeral texts. Chung took heed, carving off everything else and making his app, Frankly, all about sending texts that expired whenever you wanted them too. On Sept. 24, he launched Frankly on iOS. Since then, he's raised $6 million in funding from South Korean mobile giant SK Planet, hired a staff of 20 and booked a decent 350,000 downloads. Out of a handful of similar texting services Frankly has raised the most financing, and some say it marks a future trend.