Business
Snapchat users share fury at upcoming fees for Memories storage
Liv McMahonTechnology reporter
Getty Images“Half of my life is on this app and now they expect us to pay for it.”
One-star reviews and a sense of injustice have dominated online discussion since the popular messaging app Snapchat became the latest tech firm to put a price tag on a service people previously enjoyed using for free.
The app’s parent company Snap announced in September it would start charging people if they have more than five gigabytes worth of previously shared images and videos saved as Memories.
For many, these retro posts act as a window to the past – leading some to accuse the firm of “corporate greed” in posts on social media and negative reviews on Google and Apple’s app stores.
Snap has compared its paid storage plans to those provided by Apple and Google for smartphones.
And as an alternative for those who don’t want to pay, users can download their Memories, which for some span tens of gigabytes of data, to their device.
The firm told the BBC only a small number of users would be affected by the changes.
It also acknowledged it was “never easy to transition from receiving a service for free to paying for it” – but suggested it would be “worth the cost” for users.
Many criticising the move online seem to disagree.
An online petition dubbed the fee a “memory tax”, with commenters calling it “dystopian” and “ridiculous” – while one person threatened never to use the app again.
Meanwhile, in a one-star review on the Google Play store, a person calling themselves Natacha Jonsson said it felt “very unethical”.
“If I know millennials right, most of us have years worth of memories on Snapchat,” they said.
“And most of us only kept the app mainly for that reason.
“5GB is absolutely nothing when you have years worth of memories… Bye Snap.”
And Guste Ven, a 20-year-old journalism student in London, shared on TikTok her plans to delete the app.
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“I decided that I needed to download all my memories as soon as I could,” she told BBC News.
“Almost all of my teenage years have been documented through my Snapchat memories, all of the photos in there are really important to me.
“It just doesn’t make sense to start charging people for something that has been free for so many years.”
Snapchat has not yet said how much storage plans would cost in the UK – only that they are part of a “gradual global rollout”.
But 23-year-old Amber Daley, who also lives in London, said in a post on TikTok she would be “distraught” by such charges.
Allow TikTok content?
Amber told the BBC the app had become “a part of everyday life” since she started using it in 2014.
While she said she understood the platform needed to make money, Amber suggested the Memories feature means more to users than the company may have realised.
“I think it’s quite an unfair move to charge your customers who have been loyal and devoted,” she said.
“These aren’t just called Memories, these are our actual memories.”
‘Emotional artefacts’
Companies deciding to charge users for a service that was previously free is nothing new, and millions pay for services like iCloud and Google Drive to backup their photos and videos from their smartphone.
The reality of storing data in the cloud – which some in the tech industry like to refer to as simply “somebody else’s computer” – is it costs money.
“Hosting trillions of Memories on Snapchat isn’t a trivial amount,” social media consultant Matt Navarra told the BBC.
“Snapchat has to try to find a way to cover the cost of storage, bandwidth, back-ups, content delivery, encryption – all that stuff.”
Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBut Mr Navarra said introducing fees for a service that had previously been free, and users had been encouraged to use as such, may feel like a “bait and switch” for some.
“Moving the goalposts after people have built this huge digital archive doesn’t really sit right,” he said.
And for many, he added, “Memories aren’t just data dumps, they’re emotional artefacts”.
The feeling was shared by those leaving critical reviews, with one person calling their Snapchat photos and videos “the most precious thing to me”.
“[Memories] have every aspect of my life within them from celebrations of new family members’ births, mourning of passed loved ones, memories with friends/family, [and] my whole teenage years,” they wrote.
Dr Taylor Annabell, a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said Snapchat’s move shows the implications of commercial platforms being used to store sentimental personal content.
“They benefit from this trust, interdependence, and presumption of never-ending access, which even incentivises some users to remain with the platform or continue to use it in order to scroll back through their archive,” she told the BBC.
“But these are not benevolent guardians of personal memory.”
A man experiencing homelessness said he hoped the government would focus on increasing accessibility to housing in its upcoming Budget.
Josh, 26, who is currently a resident at the night shelter Jimmy’s in Cambridge, said the availability of council housing and “move-on housing” – shared accommodation where people can receive support – was important.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver Labour’s second budget on 26 November.
Cambridge City Council received 1,139 homelessness applications between April 2024 and March 2025, which was a 13% rise on the previous year.
Josh said his focus was to get back into work after he completed his electrician qualifications, which he said were “just as hard as a degree in my opinion”.
He would like to see the Budget include more opportunities for continuing apprenticeships and more financial support for necessities such as course books.
Josh said he recently received a government grant to pay for essential job hunting equipment, such as a mobile phone, boots and suitable clothing.
He added that he would support a rise in taxes if they were spent on investing in public services, “especially the train lines into London”.
Andrew works in the security sector and lives in Peterborough in a home owned by the charity Hope Into Action.
The charity, which was set up in the city 15 years ago, owns 130 houses across the UK.
Andrew has beea living in one of the charity’s properties for two years, after experiencing homelessness for about “three or four months”.
“The charity saved my life,” he said.
He said renting in the private sector “can be expensive” but that people themselves have “got to budget as much as possible”.
Applications for housing to Peterborough City Council are also rising.
In 2024, it was contacted by 3,654 households facing homelessness, which was an 11% jump on the previous year.
And since 7 April this year, there have already been 2,333 approaches – an average of 70 a week.
The authority received nearly £1m last month to help tackle rough sleeping in the city.
Andrew said he recognised that public services needed to be paid for and that if tax rises needed to happen to pay for them then “you’ve got to make good” yourself.
HM Treasury was contacted for comment.
Business
Kotak Mahindra stock split: Bank announces 1:5 share split; aims to boost liquidity- what you need to know – The Times of India
Kotak Mahindra Bank on Friday said its board has approved a sub-division of equity shares in a 1:5 ratio to make the stock more affordable and enhance market liquidity. The decision was taken on the lender’s 40th foundation day and is subject to statutory and regulatory approvals, the private sector bank said in a regulatory filing.Under the proposal, one existing equity share of face value Rs 5 will be split into five shares of face value Rs 1 each, fully paid-up. The lender last conducted a stock split in 2010, when it subdivided shares in a 1:2 ratio, PTI reported.Commenting on the decision, the bank’s part-time chairman CS Rajan said, “As we celebrate 40 years of our journey, we reaffirm our commitment to creating long-term value for our shareholders. This milestone is not just a reflection of our legacy, but a Kotak for the future.”He added that the move is intended to encourage broader investor participation by making equity shares “more affordable and liquid”.Managing Director and CEO Ashok Vaswani said, “Forty years ago, we began a journey rooted in trust and innovation. Today, as we celebrate this remarkable milestone, we also look ahead with a renewed ambition. The decision to implement a stock split echoes our commitment to inclusivity, so that more investors can join us in the Kotak growth story.”The board also approved amendments to the capital clause of the Memorandum of Association to reflect the revised share structure post-split. The change will take effect after necessary approvals from shareholders, the Reserve Bank of India, and other regulatory authorities.The process is expected to be completed within two months of receiving all clearances. Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank closed 0.51% lower at Rs 2,086.50 apiece on the BSE on Friday.
A sign with the company logo sits outside of the headquarters of Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 17, 2024.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Eli Lilly reached a $1 trillion market capitalization on Friday, the first health-care company in the world to join the exclusive club dominated by tech firms.
Eli Lilly briefly hit the $1 trillion mark in morning trading before retreating. It was last trading around $1,048 a share. Eli Lilly is the second nontechnology company to reach the coveted $1 trillion mark in the U.S. after Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway.
The drugmaker’s stock has climbed more than 36% this year as investors applaud the gains it has made over chief rival Novo Nordisk in the GLP-1 drug space. The Indianapolis-based company’s stock has been riding the skyrocketing popularity of its weight loss injection Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro.
Eli Lilly’s stock has soared on the back of the success of its drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound.Demand is only expected to grow as approvals for the treatments’ uses and insurance coverage expand.
The two drugs have driven eye-popping sales growth for Eli Lilly. Last month, the company said Mounjaro drew in $6.52 billion in revenue in the third quarter, a 109% increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, Zepbound posted $3.59 billion in sales during the period, a 184% spike from the prior-year period.
Demand for the treatments will only grow as approvals for their use and insurance coverage expand. In addition, Eli Lilly expects an oral version of its popular drugs to hit the market next year, which could give patients a more convenient option than a shot that is easier for the company to produce.
Eli Lilly will likely remain a dominant player in the weight loss drug market, which some analysts believe could be worth more than $150 billion by the early 2030s.
But despite its recent struggles and leadership shake-ups, Novo Nordisk remains a formidable rival for Eli Lilly in the space. Pfizer also made a push forward in the market, as well, when it won a $10 billion bidding war with Novo Nordisk for obesity drugmaker Metsera earlier this month.
The runaway success of Zepbound, Mounjaro
Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical chemist and Union veteran of the U.S. Civil War, founded his namesake company in 1876. It has long been at the forefront of the diabetes treatment space, introducing the world’s first commercial insulin in 1923.
Eli Lilly became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange by 1952, and for decades relied on a slate of widely successful products to drive much of its profits and revenue. That included insulins, the antidepressant pill Prozac and the earliest polio vaccine.
An Eli Lilly & Co. Zepbound injection pen, March 28, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Eli Lilly hit the jackpot with the May 2022 approval of tirzepatide for diabetes, which is sold as Mounjaro. It started to compete with Novo Nordisk’s diabetes injection Ozempic, which had entered the market a few years earlier.
But Eli Lilly brought a new way to treat diabetes and eventually, obesity. Tirzepatide works by imitating two hormones produced in the gut called GLP-1 and GIP. GLP-1 helps reduce food intake and appetite. GIP, which also suppresses appetite, may also improve how the body breaks down sugar and fat.
Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and its weight loss drug Wegovy, only targets GLP-1.
Mounjaro achieved “blockbuster” status — meaning it generated more than $1 billion in annual sales — during its first full year on the market. Eli Lilly then won approval in late 2023 for tirzepatide as a treatment for obesity, which is sold as Zepbound and now competes with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.
By 2024, Mounjaro pulled in $11.54 billion in sales, while Zepbound posted $4.93 billion in revenue.
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