Alibaba has become the latest firm to see potential in Snapchat, a photo messaging app popular among teens, investing $200m in the company.

The funding from the Chinese e-commerce giant will value the messaging app – which is banned in China – at a whopping $15bn, according to Bloomberg Business.

Snapchat allows users to send and receive photos and videos to friends that disappear after only a few seconds.

Last year, Yahoo invested $20m in Snapchat following the sale of its shares in Alibaba which made it billions of dollars.

Founded by Stanford University student Evan Spiegel, the messaging app only started running ads late last year, and is reportedly charging brands $750,000 a day for a spot on the platform.

McDonald’s, Samsung, Macy’s, EA and Universal Pictures are some of the initial advertisers to promote their products on the app.

Speaking at the Montgomery Summit in Santa Monico, California, Spiegel declined to comment on the company’s recent fundraising efforts, saying: “We are famous for not talking about the future.”

In 2013, Spiegel turned down a $3bn acquisition offer from Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook then went on to acquire popular messaging app WhatsApp instead for $19bn.

Alibaba has been investing heavily overseas, specifically targeting companies that may aid its mobile presence and e-commerce business. It recently struck deals with chat app Tango and ridesharing app Lyft.

As of May last year, Snapchat users were sending 700 million photos and videos per day, while Snapchat Stories were being viewed 500 million times per day.