The footnote kind of explains this: "Net loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 includes $2.5 billion of stock-based compensation expense, primarily

The footnote kind of explains this: "Net loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 includes $2.5 billion of stock-based compensation expense, primarily due to the recognition of expense related to RSUs with a performance condition satisfied on the effectiveness of the registration statement for our initial public offering." I believe the vast majority of that was due to issuing stock to Evan Spiegel for successfully executing the IPO at given metrics.