Snapchat 'is planning a $25 billion IPO'

Popular messaging service Snapchat's parent company, Snap, is working on an IPO that could bring its value up to $25 billion, sources told the Wall Street Journal.

These sources say that Snap, which was recently re-named by CEO Evan Spiegler, aims to float its stock before March 2017.

Should the California-based company, achieve the higher valuation, it would become the largest on a US stock exchange since 2014.

Snapchat rapidly increased in popularity thanks to its unique and innovative feature that allows users to send expiring picture messages that can only be re-played once and are immediately deleted afterwards, and was valued at $17.8 billion in May.

The messaging app also has a feature called Stories, through which users can create collections of pictures that can only be viewed by their friends for 24 hours. Instagram has recently introduced a similar feature and Facebook is also running a trial of a similar tool for its Messenger app in Poland.

The Snapchat app is also widely used by marketers to promote their products to consumers.

In 2013, Snapchat rejected a $3 billion takeover offer from Facebook. If it became a public company worth $25 billion on the stock market, rejecting the social media giant's offer could prove to have been a wise choice.

The company's income is expected to range between $250 million and $350 million this year and at least $1 billion in 2017. This value is more than four times greater than the $60 million income Snapchat reported in 2015.