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>1) If the rumors are correct that they are looking to raise 4 Billion at a roughly $40 Billion valuation. Was under the impression Snapchat was given a $3-5 b
by photogrammetry 10y ago
>1) If the rumors are correct that they are looking to raise 4 Billion at a roughly $40 Billion valuation.
Was under the impression Snapchat was given a $3-5 billion valuation.
I find it hard to accept that Snapchat is worth the same as Tesla and SpaceX combined.
In other words, is [a 400-employee company whose core product works only on cell phones to show annoying ads to teenagers as they send each other photos, and whose annual income is barely $100m] worth the same as [a 15,000-employee company that produces autonomous electric vehicles, with a net income of a few billion/year] and [a 5,000-employee aerospace company that builds self-landing rockets, with income of a few billion/year] combined? I don't bloody think so, especially given what an asshole Evan Spiegel has been in public lately.
If anything, this is a sign that we're in a soon-to-pop bubble. If Snapchat ever goes public, it deserves to die the same slow death on the stock market as Twitter did earlier this year, or a violent pets.com style death.
- huac 10y agoTesla and SpaceX aren't worth that much for much the same reasons you've outlined - they have massive capex requirements, high employee overhead and retention costs, and really real technology risk (it's literally rocket science).
- pixelcloud 10y agoAt least they have something they can sell afterwards...
- tscLegend 10y agoIf I sell you a Book for a million dollars, I make 1 million dollars. If I sell a million books for a dollar each, I make a million dollars. My Company is worth a million dollars. It makes no difference to the quality or what i am selling.
- photogrammetry 10y agoThat's not how valuation works, and that's not how revenue models of companies work. Please make less useless comments.
- bfstein 10y agoA company is worth the percentage it captures of the value it creates. You alluded to it in your comment--Snap has a much lower headcount and an order of magnitude less operating costs, so if anything it kind of makes sense that they'd be valued at a relative premium. Also, you may not like Snapchat, but to say it deserves to die when it both a) employs real people and b) clearly serves a market need is such a terrible thing to wish for.
- photogrammetry 10y agoI like Snapchat; it's a great service. However, if they keep introducing more ads while demanding ridiculous valuations, my generation will stop using it. It would be great for Snapchat and Twitter to be turned into nonprofits like Wikipedia.
- nv-vn 10y ago> whose core product works only on cell phones to show annoying ads to teenagers as they send each other photos Rather than trying to call something stupid before you know what it is, it would probably help you to look into Snapchat some more. Other than the fact that it's only on your cell phone, how is any of this different from Facebook/Twitter/Instagram? Anyways, the reason I believe Snapchat stands out here as a profitable service is exactly what you said. Snapchat is really fast-paced -- while a lot of time goes into most people's Instagram posts, it's not worth the effort for a photo someone will see for 10 seconds max. Like Twitter, this enables rapid use. It's not unheard of for people to send/receive hundreds of snaps a day. Plus, Snapchat is perfect for advertisers. All you do is roll out some filter and probably half the people using the app on that day will try it out. Combine the two and you'll seen realize that not only are users voluntarily sharing advertisements, but they're also doing it often 10+ times a day (and viewing those same advertisements hundreds of times). Yes, more people might see a single ad on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter, but it won't be ingrained into their mind to nearly the same degree as it could be with Snapchat. That's the kind of value that could put them ahead of Tesla or SpaceX.
- kriro 10y agoIt's pretty clear to me that people value Snapchat. Imagine totaling up the time voluntarily spent on Snapchat. Capturing that value...that's another question but there's a lot of economic value provided by Snapchat (as in people chose to use Snapchat over doing something else). I've never used Snapchat and only barely know what it is (an even shorter lived instant messaging thingy where messages disappear and gamification techniques are used to keep you enganged?)