6 ms·

I'm confused by this high cost, sure you might need lots of compute, but storage tends to dominate over the long term. Isn't Snapchat supposed to delete data a

I'm confused by this high cost, sure you might need lots of compute, but storage tends to dominate over the long term. Isn't Snapchat supposed to delete data after 30s or whatever? Why this insanely high cost? Can somebody shed some light.

teej 10y ago
I imagine bandwidth is a major cost center.
- amluto 10y ago
  Last time I checked, Google and AWS both had very, very high egress prices. At these levels, it's far cheaper to connect to a Tier 1 provider or three.
  - hadfgdasf 10y ago
    Did you check what their price was at the $2B purchase volume?
    - amluto 10y ago
      Nope. OTOH, $2B is large enough that the Tier 1 transit rates are probably quite good, too.
argonaut 10y ago
1. There are also stories (last 24 hours). These are often video clips. 2. Like Whatsapp, server has to store the message until the receiver is online again (until they open the app). 3. Whatever systems they use for advertising, tracking, profiling, and analytics is probably a significant chunk of their backend.
- kevindong 10y ago
  > 2. Like Whatsapp, server has to store the message until the receiver is online again (until they open the app). The server actually has to store it for a maximum of 30 days [0]. Snaps get deleted after 30 days (even if they're unopened). They're deleted immediately once the Snapchat servers get confirmation they've been viewed. [0]: https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/how-snaps-are-stored-and-deleted/ https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/how-snaps-are-stored-an...
  - unixhero 10y ago
    Do you really believe that.
    - luckystartup 10y ago
      Sure, why not? They might work with the FBI to store data for specific targets, and the NSA probably intercepts and copies a lot of data onto their own servers, but I see no reason why the company itself would lie about this. They probably do delete the data immediately for the vast majority of their users.
firloop 10y ago
They released Memories last year which lets you back up your sent Snapchats with them. So I'd expect some non trivial permanent storage costs, at least at their scale. https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/introducing-memories/ https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/introducing-memories/
hnarayanan 10y ago
I suppose you're confusing the user-facing feature with what actually happens on their servers.

teej 10y ago

I imagine bandwidth is a major cost center.

amluto 10y ago
Last time I checked, Google and AWS both had very, very high egress prices. At these levels, it's far cheaper to connect to a Tier 1 provider or three.
- hadfgdasf 10y ago
  Did you check what their price was at the $2B purchase volume?
  - amluto 10y ago
    Nope. OTOH, $2B is large enough that the Tier 1 transit rates are probably quite good, too.

argonaut 10y ago

1. There are also stories (last 24 hours). These are often video clips. 2. Like Whatsapp, server has to store the message until the receiver is online again (until they open the app). 3. Whatever systems they use for advertising, tracking, profiling, and analytics is probably a significant chunk of their backend.

kevindong 10y ago
> 2. Like Whatsapp, server has to store the message until the receiver is online again (until they open the app). The server actually has to store it for a maximum of 30 days [0]. Snaps get deleted after 30 days (even if they're unopened). They're deleted immediately once the Snapchat servers get confirmation they've been viewed. [0]: https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/how-snaps-are-stored-and-deleted/ https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/how-snaps-are-stored-an...
- unixhero 10y ago
  Do you really believe that.
  - luckystartup 10y ago
    Sure, why not? They might work with the FBI to store data for specific targets, and the NSA probably intercepts and copies a lot of data onto their own servers, but I see no reason why the company itself would lie about this. They probably do delete the data immediately for the vast majority of their users.

firloop 10y ago

They released Memories last year which lets you back up your sent Snapchats with them. So I'd expect some non trivial permanent storage costs, at least at their scale. https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/introducing-memories/ https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/introducing-memories/

hnarayanan 10y ago

I suppose you're confusing the user-facing feature with what actually happens on their servers.