5 ms·

This is total bs. $54 million in revenue with an $18 billion valuation? I understand investing in the "future value" of companies, but this shit is getting out

This is total bs. $54 million in revenue with an $18 billion valuation? I understand investing in the "future value" of companies, but this shit is getting out of hand, lol.

kneel 10y ago
Their demograph is just graduating high school. They will be very valuable in the future.
- johnloeber 10y ago
  ...assuming they are able to retain these users. I am not entirely optimistic that Snapchat will manage to hold on to their users in the long term.
- Phlarp 10y ago
  Isn't this what people said about Facebook when they were at this stage? I feel as though that has failed to materialize, and their new demographic is "relatives over 50 desperate to appear 'hip'"
  - kneel 10y ago
    I'm wondering if it's a coincidence that facebook's revenue was 18 billion last year...
    - Phlarp 10y ago
      More and more it seems the entire excersize is just elaborate cover for Evan and Mark to have a dick measuring contest. Evan: "I'm coming for you, you know you'll have to buy it all sooner or later, try not to insult me with your next offer!" Zuck: "In your dreams kid!"
      - freyir 10y ago
        That's an interesting interpretation. I think Zuckerberg is extremely paranoid about Facebook being displaced. Facebook knocked MySpace off the throne, and everyone predicted Facebook would suffer the same fate. It hasn't happened because Zuckerberg has been strategically paranoid. Even after getting a slow start in mobile, he threw ridiculous amounts of money at the situation until they were back on top. I think the present-day VR hype is due to Zuckerberg being paranoid that VR would be the next mobile, and wanting to get ahead of it. Everyone followed his lead and people are betting the farm on VR being the next big thing, when that's just not clear at all. But for Facebook, spending $2B on Oculus was an ounce-of-prevention purchase.
        Phlarp 10y ago
        Zuck tried to do the same with Snapchat a long time (2012 or 2013?) ago but most accounts of the situation have Evan scoffing at the $3 billion offer. Surely he (Zuck) will run out of cash and stock with which to make $20 billion dollar acquisitions sooner rather than later?
  - onewaystreet 10y ago
    People did say that and they were right. Facebook is currently valued at over $300 billion.
    - kirykl 10y ago
      foolishly tho; they have 4B profit on 18B revenue, pretty short of 300B
      - mr_tyzic 10y ago
        It's an investor's job to be so foolish.
        kirykl 10y ago
        their P/E ratio is huge, they are not worthless just overvalued
  - freyir 10y ago
    I'm not a fan of Facebook, and I think their core product is fundamentally antisocial and creepy. That said, the company is hugely successful. There's no denying it. While Facebook may be less hip than it once was, the company now owns mobile (Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp). They would have loved to had Snapchat too.
- mikeryan 10y ago
  Small bit if anecdata. My Niece graduated high school last year started UCLA and promptly switched to Facebook.
- _RPM 10y ago
  It seems popular with that demographic. It came out when I was like 20 or 21. I was never really into it. My peers were, but it just seemed silly to me.
- overcast 10y ago
  People growing up will not be using Snapchat, for the exact reason you stated.
  - iliaznk 10y ago
    Well, Mark Suster and Justin Kan are just two examples of gorwnups using Snapchat successfully for video blogging.
    - overcast 10y ago
      They're using it as a business, not what the other 99.9% of people are using it for.
      - iliaznk 10y ago
        There's a chance then that more people will be using it for that purpose targeting wider audience.
        overcast 10y ago
        Sure, but the point here is, that is relies on a young user base. They are widely known as having zero loyalty, and will drop and move on to the next big thing on a whim.
- agumonkey 10y ago
  So that's the whole thing ? cultural stockholm syndrom ?
  - Mikushi 10y ago
    Yes, and revenue based in online advertising, which is itself mostly fraud and lies bound to collapse on itself sooner or later.
- Grue3 10y ago
  Just like MySpace users are very valuable now. Oh, wait.
jdross 10y ago
Your comment reminds me of this incredibly wrong post by DHH: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2585-facebook-is-not-worth-33000000000 https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2585-facebook-is-not-worth-33...
- traviswingo 10y ago
  Alright, touche. Facebook is actually worth what the market claims it to be worth, because of the large amount of people in one place, all willing to tell the world exactly what their interests are. Its a marketing heaven. Snapchat might be worth a lot, but I'm just sick of companies like this being valued so high, simply because they provide literally no benefit to society. If Snapchat went down tomorrow, would it really affect anyone? Nope, the World would keep on spinning. It's time to incentivize people to make a difference, not build photo sharing apps. There are real problems in the world that desperately need to be solved, yet we're getting rich off dick picks and calling ourselves the "innovator of the century." Yeah...no thanks.
  - andrepd 10y ago
    That's a symptom of capitalism. When your sole objective is maximizing profit, all else be damned, there is no such thing as working for the greater good or solving any of the critical problems we need to solve to keep our species moving forward. You get photo-sharing apps.
    - stvswn 10y ago
      Yes, this! Too many entrepreneurs are building things people like to use, instead of things people need. What if there was a committee of experts -- leaders in the field -- who decided what startups got investment? They could truly weigh the cost-benefit analysis. Of course, it would only work if there were some enforcement mechanism. So unauthorized coding would need to be outlawed. At least you couldn't spend any money on it. We'd have to pick the right experts, too. That shouldn't be too hard, we could start right here on HN! Lots of smart people. The free market is so random, amoral, and inefficient. Obviously a group of well-educated, experienced software engineers could allocate labor way more efficiently. This can't fail. When we get the pesky market out of the way, the sky's the limit! Progress together! History marches on!
toosmart4u12 10y ago
lol you mad bro?
st3v3r 10y ago
$54 million in revenue in the year they first tried to get revenue.

This is total bs. $54 million in revenue with an $18 billion valuation? I understand investing in the "future value" of companies, but this shit is getting out of hand, lol.

kneel 10y ago

Their demograph is just graduating high school. They will be very valuable in the future.

johnloeber 10y ago
...assuming they are able to retain these users. I am not entirely optimistic that Snapchat will manage to hold on to their users in the long term.
Phlarp 10y ago
Isn't this what people said about Facebook when they were at this stage? I feel as though that has failed to materialize, and their new demographic is "relatives over 50 desperate to appear 'hip'"
- kneel 10y ago
  I'm wondering if it's a coincidence that facebook's revenue was 18 billion last year...
  - Phlarp 10y ago
    More and more it seems the entire excersize is just elaborate cover for Evan and Mark to have a dick measuring contest. Evan: "I'm coming for you, you know you'll have to buy it all sooner or later, try not to insult me with your next offer!" Zuck: "In your dreams kid!"
    - freyir 10y ago
      That's an interesting interpretation. I think Zuckerberg is extremely paranoid about Facebook being displaced. Facebook knocked MySpace off the throne, and everyone predicted Facebook would suffer the same fate. It hasn't happened because Zuckerberg has been strategically paranoid. Even after getting a slow start in mobile, he threw ridiculous amounts of money at the situation until they were back on top. I think the present-day VR hype is due to Zuckerberg being paranoid that VR would be the next mobile, and wanting to get ahead of it. Everyone followed his lead and people are betting the farm on VR being the next big thing, when that's just not clear at all. But for Facebook, spending $2B on Oculus was an ounce-of-prevention purchase.
      - Phlarp 10y ago
        Zuck tried to do the same with Snapchat a long time (2012 or 2013?) ago but most accounts of the situation have Evan scoffing at the $3 billion offer. Surely he (Zuck) will run out of cash and stock with which to make $20 billion dollar acquisitions sooner rather than later?
- onewaystreet 10y ago
  People did say that and they were right. Facebook is currently valued at over $300 billion.
  - kirykl 10y ago
    foolishly tho; they have 4B profit on 18B revenue, pretty short of 300B
    - mr_tyzic 10y ago
      It's an investor's job to be so foolish.
      - kirykl 10y ago
        their P/E ratio is huge, they are not worthless just overvalued
- freyir 10y ago
  I'm not a fan of Facebook, and I think their core product is fundamentally antisocial and creepy. That said, the company is hugely successful. There's no denying it. While Facebook may be less hip than it once was, the company now owns mobile (Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp). They would have loved to had Snapchat too.
mikeryan 10y ago
Small bit if anecdata. My Niece graduated high school last year started UCLA and promptly switched to Facebook.
_RPM 10y ago
It seems popular with that demographic. It came out when I was like 20 or 21. I was never really into it. My peers were, but it just seemed silly to me.
overcast 10y ago
People growing up will not be using Snapchat, for the exact reason you stated.
- iliaznk 10y ago
  Well, Mark Suster and Justin Kan are just two examples of gorwnups using Snapchat successfully for video blogging.
  - overcast 10y ago
    They're using it as a business, not what the other 99.9% of people are using it for.
    - iliaznk 10y ago
      There's a chance then that more people will be using it for that purpose targeting wider audience.
      - overcast 10y ago
        Sure, but the point here is, that is relies on a young user base. They are widely known as having zero loyalty, and will drop and move on to the next big thing on a whim.
agumonkey 10y ago
So that's the whole thing ? cultural stockholm syndrom ?
- Mikushi 10y ago
  Yes, and revenue based in online advertising, which is itself mostly fraud and lies bound to collapse on itself sooner or later.
Grue3 10y ago
Just like MySpace users are very valuable now. Oh, wait.

jdross 10y ago

Your comment reminds me of this incredibly wrong post by DHH: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2585-facebook-is-not-worth-33000000000 https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2585-facebook-is-not-worth-33...

traviswingo 10y ago
Alright, touche. Facebook is actually worth what the market claims it to be worth, because of the large amount of people in one place, all willing to tell the world exactly what their interests are. Its a marketing heaven. Snapchat might be worth a lot, but I'm just sick of companies like this being valued so high, simply because they provide literally no benefit to society. If Snapchat went down tomorrow, would it really affect anyone? Nope, the World would keep on spinning. It's time to incentivize people to make a difference, not build photo sharing apps. There are real problems in the world that desperately need to be solved, yet we're getting rich off dick picks and calling ourselves the "innovator of the century." Yeah...no thanks.
- andrepd 10y ago
  That's a symptom of capitalism. When your sole objective is maximizing profit, all else be damned, there is no such thing as working for the greater good or solving any of the critical problems we need to solve to keep our species moving forward. You get photo-sharing apps.
  - stvswn 10y ago
    Yes, this! Too many entrepreneurs are building things people like to use, instead of things people need. What if there was a committee of experts -- leaders in the field -- who decided what startups got investment? They could truly weigh the cost-benefit analysis. Of course, it would only work if there were some enforcement mechanism. So unauthorized coding would need to be outlawed. At least you couldn't spend any money on it. We'd have to pick the right experts, too. That shouldn't be too hard, we could start right here on HN! Lots of smart people. The free market is so random, amoral, and inefficient. Obviously a group of well-educated, experienced software engineers could allocate labor way more efficiently. This can't fail. When we get the pesky market out of the way, the sky's the limit! Progress together! History marches on!

toosmart4u12 10y ago

lol you mad bro?

st3v3r 10y ago

$54 million in revenue in the year they first tried to get revenue.