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Because its sales volume is constantly raising. About 50% year to year. Also, a lot of the money gets used for building the production infrastructure. Tesla own
by _ph_ 10y ago
Because its sales volume is constantly raising. About 50% year to year. Also, a lot of the money gets used for building the production infrastructure. Tesla owns now a car manufacturing plant in Freemont and the Gigafactory in Nevada just had its opening party. These are real values Tesla owns.
But then, I cannot understand how Whats App could be valued 19 billion...
- tcoppi 10y agoRight, investors won't bat an eye at Instagram, Whatsapp, Airbnb, or Pintrest valuations, but can't possibly see how Tesla is worth $30b. I suppose that is slightly unfair since I happen to think Tesla is fairly well valued, maybe slightly undervalued currently, and obviously investors are the ones supporting that price. It seems like it is mostly a few institutional investors and the general public propping them up right now though, not the sell side firms that can dominate coverage and mentality sometimes.
- erikpukinskis 10y agoThe companies you name receive a lot of eye-batting.
- tcoppi 10y agoMostly by the tech community itself, not the financial or venture capital world.
- pakitan 10y agoAll those companies can pretend that they are part of the "new economy" where valuations are not bound by mere fundamentals like revenue and profit. Tesla, on the other hand, can't do that. They manufacture a tangible product and have a lot of established competition to which they can be easily compared. Currently Tesla's market cap is 150% that of Renault's. A company that sells millions of vehicles, has factories all around the world and makes a very healthy profit for its shareholders. So, Tesla, instead of trading at a discount to reflect the risk involved, is traded as if it's already a successful company 1.5 times the size of Renault. So, if you think Tesla is valued "fairly" now, please, tell me what should be its market cap when it actually starts making profit? $300B? $3T?
- tcoppi 10y agoIf Tesla is successful in their vision, the entire transportation(and potentially energy) industry will be completely different and hence incomparable with existing car company valuations, since they will have created a completely new slice of pie to eat from. If they are not successful and only end up as a middling premium electric car company they are probably extremely overvalued. You're comparing the valuation of horse and buggy companies in the 1910s to Ford.
- pakitan 10y ago> You're comparing the valuation of horse and buggy companies in the 1910s to Ford. You mean there are no other companies selling electric vehicles? And clearly, if, say, Mercedes, doesn't have electric model now, it's absolutely impossible that they have one in 5 years, just like a horse & buggy company, right? But forget about Mercedes, how about Nissan Leaf, which exists now and is the world's best selling electric car? Shouldn't Nissan be valued at similarly crazy valuations? Or they won't be part of this new brave world and don't get to eat from the "new slice of pie"?
- tcoppi 10y agoYou're right, Tesla should just pack it in right now. They have no competitive advantage or product that anyone wants, and Nissan has far better prospects than Tesla ever had.
- FireBeyond 10y agoThat's just snarky and completely misses the point. No-one said that. But you -did- say that Tesla is working this "completely new slice of the pie". Which they're not. Unless you artificially constrain it to a segment where only Tesla exists. Whilst the current Tesla models might well be "luxury electric", the upcoming stuff is entirely in the same segment as Nissan, hence the reply to you.
- 10y ago
- Mikeb85 10y ago> But then, I cannot understand how Whats App could be valued 19 billion... Over a billion monthly users... Not exactly small potatoes.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- psykpsyk 10y agobut how do they translate into revenue and profit?
- noonespecial 10y agoIts almost like selling stuff to people who want it for more than it cost to make it has some sort of strange effect on valuation. Wierd. Someone should do a study...