Snap boss Spiegel took home $638m in flotation year

Wall Street has been left wide-eyed amid revelations the co-founder and chief executive of Snap was awarded $638m (£458m) in 2017.

The vast sum, experts say, amounts to the third-largest payment ever netted by an executive in a single year - one that saw the company behind the photo and video-sharing app Snapchat float on the US stock market.

A regulatory filing showed Evan Spiegel was handed stock-based awards worth $636.6m.

His salary was a paltry $98,078, the document showed, with other forms of compensation accounting for the rest.

According to analysis by the data arm of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS (LSE: 0QRS.L - news) ), he trails only one other businessman in annual awards - both of which came ahead of the financial crisis.

Daniel Och, the chief executive of hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, was handed annual compensation of $918.9m in the fiscal year 2007 and $1.19bn in 2008, it said.

Snap made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in March last year valued at $24bn - its shares soaring on the first day of trading.

However, its market value has endured something of a roller coaster ride ever since, with investors consistently disappointed by core numbers at the loss-making firm despite daily active user growth for Snapchat growing 18% last year - albeit to almost 190 million. Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) has 1.4 billion in comparison.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) of Snap rose above their flotation price of $17 for the first time since July earlier this month despite a public backlash against Snapchat redesigns.

A tweet by reality TV star Kylie Jenner was credited by market analysts for taking 7% off Snap's value on Thursday.

She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) told her 24.5 million followers she was no longer using Snapchat in a Tweet that said: "Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad."

She later wrote that she still loved the app - declaring it "my first love".