Snapfish is a web-based

photo sharing A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

and photo printing service owned by

Shutterfly Shutterfly, LLC. is an American photography, photography products, and image sharing company, headquartered in San Jose, California. The company is mainly known for custom photo printing services, including books featuring user-provided images, ...

headquartered in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

. It was launched in 1999 by Rajil Kapoor, Bala Parthasarathy, Suneet Wadhwa, and Shripati Acharya.

History

Snapfish was launched in 1999 by business partners Rajil Kapoor, Bala Parthasarathy, Suneet Wadhwa, and Shripati Acharya. Ben Nelson joined soon thereafter as corporate development operations lead, to become CFO and later president and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. On October 30, 2001, the service was acquired by

Beltsville, Maryland Beltsville is a census-designated place (CDP) in northern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The community was named for Truman Belt, a local landowner. The 2020 census counted 20,133 residents. Beltsville includes the unincorporate ...

-based digital imaging services company District Photo for an undisclosed amount. In 2004, Snapfish opened a physical retail concept store in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

, but later closed it. The next year, Snapfish was bought by

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

for $300 million while Nelson was CEO, even though the service's revenue at the time was less than $100 million. Nelson continued to run the company as an HP

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

. During this time, Snapfish partnered with

Walgreens Walgreens is an American pharmacy store chain. It is the second largest in the United States, behind CVS Pharmacy. As of March 2025, the company operated more than 8,700 stores in the U.S. Walgreens has been the subject of a number of lawsuit ...

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box warehouse club retail stores. As of 2021, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, and as of August 2024, Cos ...

, and

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

. In August 2013, Snapfish announced on their local websites (and through a mailing to members) that they were shutting down the service in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. In April 2015, HP reached an agreement to sell Snapfish back to District Photo. Under the terms of the sale, HP allowed the company to continue to use its printing services. During a website conversion in 2016, the service experienced a

data loss Data loss is an error condition in information systems in which information is destroyed by failures (like failed spindle motors or head crashes on hard drives) or neglect (like mishandling, careless handling or storage under unsuitable conditions) ...

. Photos prior to January 2014 were unable to be migrated to the new website system. Snapfish said that although some photo albums were recovered, others would remain empty. Typically Snapfish had three versions of images: high resolution, low resolution, and printable images. Both the high and low resolution images were lost and the backup files for the printable images were not recoverable. Jasbir Patel was named president and

in January 2017. On September 28, 2018, it was announced that Snapfish would acquire

CafePress CafePress, Inc. is an American online retailer of a wide range of consumer items, including clothing, home decor, drinkware, stationery, gifts, and user- customized on-demand items. The company was founded in San Mateo, California, but is now he ...

for more than $25 million. The acquisition was completed on November 9, 2018. On June 10, 2019,

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American asset management firm that primarily invests in alternative assets. , the company had $548 billion of assets under management, including $392 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capita ...

announced that it would acquire both Snapfish and its rival

in separate deals valued at around $3 billion in total. The two companies would be merged into a single entity, with Snapfish parent company District Photo as a minority stakeholder. The merger of Shutterfly and Snapfish was completed on January 8, 2020. On May 4, 2020, it was announced that Snapfish will no longer be providing the platform for

Boots A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...

Photo in the UK and Ireland from May 13, 2020. On September 1, 2020, it was announced that PlanetArt, a subsidiary of a French diversified global technology group, had acquired CafePress from Snapfish/Shutterfly.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.snapfish.com Image-sharing websites 1999 establishments in California American companies established in 1999 Companies based in San Francisco American photography websites Internet properties established in 1999 Online retailers of the United States Hewlett-Packard acquisitions 2001 mergers and acquisitions 2005 mergers and acquisitions 2015 mergers and acquisitions 2020 mergers and acquisitions Defunct software companies of the United States

History

See also

References

External links