Facebook wanted to gobble up mobile app Snapchat, much as it did with Instagram, only this time the social network offered three times the amount, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reported - citing unnamed sources - that Snapchat recently rejected a $3 billion all-cash bid from Facebook. What's more, the two-year-old mobile app spurned a Facebook buyout twice. The social network had earlier offered to buy Snapchat for more than $1 billion, the same price it paid for Instagram in 2012.

It seems Snapchat is listening to other investors and potential acquirers, and it believes a $4 billion valuation is on the horizon. Evan Spiegel, the company's 23-year-old co-founder and CEO, will not consider an acquisition until 2014, when he hopes the service's user and message numbers will grow enough to encourage a higher and more enticing bid.

If the story is true, Spiegel is certainly taking a gamble. Especially since his mobile app, which focuses on brief mobile messages, is popular among teenagers only and doesn't have a defined revenue model. Then again, there are many tech start-ups banking in recent years with absolutely no revenue. Just look at Twitter: it went public and has a $25 billion dollar valuation, despite being unprofitable to date.

READ: Snapchat introduces Snapchat Stories, 24-hour slices of users' lives

Snapchat, much like Twitter and many of these other companies in Silicon Valley, has raised plenty of money from investors to fund day-to-day processes. In June, the company raised $60 million from Institutional Venture Partners and others. That's probably because Snapchat sees roughly 350 million messages or “snaps” a day. Investors love this sort of usage and potential, and apparently Facebook does as well.