evan spiegel snapchat snapEvan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat's parent company, Snap.Reuters
  • Tencent, a giant Chinese investment holding company, is taking a 10% investment in Snap.
  • The news arrived a day after Snap's third-quarter earnings release, in which the company reported numbers that missed Wall Street's expectations.

The Chinese investment giant Tencent has taken a 10% stake in Snap, the parent company of the popular social network Snapchat, by purchasing 145.8 million nonvoting shares over the past quarter.
The news comes as a vote of confidence in the company, which on Tuesday reported third-quarter earnings that failed to meet analysts' expectations and made the stock dive 17% in after-hours trading.
Over the past three months, Snapchat added only 4.5 million new users, a mere 3% increase over the previous quarter (the company announced plans to redesign the app with the aim of making it more accessible).
Snap also had to write off about $39 million, or £29 million, in unsold Spectacles, its camera-equipped glasses that let users take photos and videos without firing up the mobile app from a phone.
This isn't the first time the two companies have crossed roads.
Back in late 2012 and 2013, Tencent invested in Snapchat through a series of private rounds (CNBC, where we first saw the story, also reports), while an additional deal — in which CEO Evan Spiegel and cofounder Bobby Murphy had apparently asked for $40 million in secondary shares — failed to materialise in late 2013.
Get the latest Snap stock price here.

NOW WATCH: Samsung released the widest computer monitor you can buy — here's what it's like