Snapchat is playing it cool with brands and stars

San Francisco

THE musician Jay Sean has visited the headquarters of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Instagram has reached out to tutor him on the best time to post photos for maximum impact. But there is one social media service Sean has not heard from, even though he frequently uses the app to post spontaneous snippets of his life: Snapchat.

"When it comes to celebrities, Snapchat is different from Instagram or Twitter," said Sean, whose biggest hit was the song Down, which also features the hip-hop artist Lil Wayne. Sean has 472,000 followers on Instagram, but he says he does not know how many people follow him on Snapchat because the company does not disclose the information.