Snapchat expected to be valued at $4bn even in absence of any revenue

Photo and video sharing app, Snapchat is reportedly expected to be valued at 4 billion dollars in its next funding, despite making any revenue.

The US startup behind the popular social media app is seeking to raise 200million dollars at a valuation between 3 billion dollars and 4 billion dollars.

According to the Guardian, Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings is speculated to be the lead in the investment, which would follow a 60 million dollar, round in June 2013 that valued Snapchat at 800 million dollars.

Snapchat app was launched for Apple's iPhone in July 2011 and Android smartphones a year later and has become very much part of people's lives allowing them to share content for a limited period of time.

The app boasts of 5 million daily active users sending more than 350million photos and videos every day.

The report said that rival Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg once approached Snapchat to discuss an acquisition above 1billion dollars but was rebuffed by its CEO Evan Spiegel.

The photo sharing app currently does not sell advertising or charge users a fee for the service, however, Spiegel is known to have publicly talked about his ambitions to add in-app purchases for additional features, the report added.