Snapchat Continues Gains to Rise 198%

Snapchat rose more than 3.5 percent during Friday's trading to continue its upward trend as the best technology company this year, gaining 198 percent.

Nomura Equity analyst Mark Kelley announced that increasing the number of new social media users could double the company's expectations.

Kelley added that the number of users, who downloaded the application rose by 21 percent last month on an annual basis.

The analyst predicted that the US company will add between 5.5-10 million users this quarter, more than double the company's expectations.

Moreover, the number of active users per day increased by 13 million on a quarterly basis to a total of 203 million.

By the end of today's trading, Snapchat share price rose by 3.6 percent to record $ 16.46.

Since the beginning of this year, the social media app. price has grown 198 percent.

The app. was released in 2011 after former students at Stanford University, including Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown developed Snapchat Inc.

Snapchat is popular for erasing shared pictures, videos and messages after a short while from recipients.

Last January,the company's shares fell 14 percent following the resignation of the company’s chief financial officer (CFO). A report in the Financial Times said a personal dispute with Chief Executive officer (CEO) Spiegel was behind the resignation.