4 ms·

Ask HN: The Next Big One?

14 points by boto3 7y ago

Apple IPO: 1980 Microsoft IPO: 1986 Amazon IPO: 1997 Google IPO: 2003 Facebook IPO: 2012 What would be your guess for the next big one, and when it goes public?

muffa 7y ago
Well I am going to guess Chinese, and a company I think are doing amazing consumer electronic products with great quality is Xiaomi. They do not sell their products in US yet, but once they start I think they will be a massive hit!
ThePhysicist 7y ago
Stripe? Not sure if they can become as big as Google though, the payment space is rather well served already (but who knows). I plan to buy some of their shares in any case. Maybe Starlink? Satellite based Internet access and communication services could be huge and it’s a truly global business with so much potential (e.g. Africa has so little bandwidth now and so much economic potential). Right now it’s absolutely niche because of the delay and the extremely high cost, but fast and cheap global Internet access via satellite could be a real game changer. Seems like there are many use cases that could benefit from such a service as well, think alone of all the connected devices like cars that need a reliable Internet connection. Plus they are in a good spot since their ties to SpaceX ensure they’ll have some of the best access to price-efficient launch capabilities.
- gt565k 7y ago
  Starlink for sure Satellite companies can't even compete with Starlink due to the launch costs. Elon Musk is a genius. It'll be the ISP of the world. Unrestricted by ground infrastructure. I can only imagine what he's got cooking once starlink is 100% operational. His plans are massive. Tesla, SpaceX, solar city, the boring company. He's vertically integrating everything that has to do with what's needed for space colonization, but doing it in a way that is benefiting and creating value on Earth. I'm pretty certain we're a few discoveries away from being able to successfully and efficiently colonize a moon or planet. Once we get a portable fusion reactor, higher density batteries, and the nanotech shrinks enough, we'll be off this planet.
  - throw51319 7y ago
    What's the point of colonizing planets if we can't change from a growth-based economic paradigm to a sustainability-based economic paradigm? Humans have evolved on the Earth over million/billions of years... we have no shot surviving on other planets unless we learn real top-down sustainability.
    - btkramer9 7y ago
      living on mars will force us to learn real top-down sustainability
    - gt565k 7y ago
      On earth, you have different countries, regimes, for that to work, we need to have a bunch of wild crazy ass leaders come together and agree on other that corporations are lobbying against to protect their interests. Starting fresh on a new planet, with a small cohort, and building out frees that society of the current geopolitical related problems on Earth.
muzani 7y ago
Alibaba was the biggest tech one recently. I'd expect more Chinese companies to take the scene. Companies like Huawei are still private, and solidly have FAANG tier revenue. It seems like they're big enough to not have to go public, but there's rumors of it. Something like TikTok (ByteDance) is able to compete toe to toe with Instagram, product wise. They'd probably be the first serious Facebook competitor.
askafriend 7y ago
I mean we just had Uber. It's still a $68B company despite somewhat mixed sentiment and performance in the public markets.
LavenderLight 7y ago
No real answer to such a question because the amount of ideas to come out and industries already at work; Asking for the next big one could likely be impossible.
AznHisoka 7y ago
Snowflake or Databricks.
toomuchtodo 7y ago
Hashicorp, 2023-2024, ~$20 billion valuation
- gt565k 7y ago
  eh that's far from big compared to OP's list. single company market cap of $1 trillion vs $20 billion -_-

14 points by boto3 7y ago

Apple IPO: 1980 Microsoft IPO: 1986 Amazon IPO: 1997 Google IPO: 2003 Facebook IPO: 2012 What would be your guess for the next big one, and when it goes public?

muffa 7y ago

Well I am going to guess Chinese, and a company I think are doing amazing consumer electronic products with great quality is Xiaomi. They do not sell their products in US yet, but once they start I think they will be a massive hit!

ThePhysicist 7y ago

Stripe? Not sure if they can become as big as Google though, the payment space is rather well served already (but who knows). I plan to buy some of their shares in any case. Maybe Starlink? Satellite based Internet access and communication services could be huge and it’s a truly global business with so much potential (e.g. Africa has so little bandwidth now and so much economic potential). Right now it’s absolutely niche because of the delay and the extremely high cost, but fast and cheap global Internet access via satellite could be a real game changer. Seems like there are many use cases that could benefit from such a service as well, think alone of all the connected devices like cars that need a reliable Internet connection. Plus they are in a good spot since their ties to SpaceX ensure they’ll have some of the best access to price-efficient launch capabilities.

gt565k 7y ago
Starlink for sure Satellite companies can't even compete with Starlink due to the launch costs. Elon Musk is a genius. It'll be the ISP of the world. Unrestricted by ground infrastructure. I can only imagine what he's got cooking once starlink is 100% operational. His plans are massive. Tesla, SpaceX, solar city, the boring company. He's vertically integrating everything that has to do with what's needed for space colonization, but doing it in a way that is benefiting and creating value on Earth. I'm pretty certain we're a few discoveries away from being able to successfully and efficiently colonize a moon or planet. Once we get a portable fusion reactor, higher density batteries, and the nanotech shrinks enough, we'll be off this planet.
- throw51319 7y ago
  What's the point of colonizing planets if we can't change from a growth-based economic paradigm to a sustainability-based economic paradigm? Humans have evolved on the Earth over million/billions of years... we have no shot surviving on other planets unless we learn real top-down sustainability.
  - btkramer9 7y ago
    living on mars will force us to learn real top-down sustainability
  - gt565k 7y ago
    On earth, you have different countries, regimes, for that to work, we need to have a bunch of wild crazy ass leaders come together and agree on other that corporations are lobbying against to protect their interests. Starting fresh on a new planet, with a small cohort, and building out frees that society of the current geopolitical related problems on Earth.

muzani 7y ago

Alibaba was the biggest tech one recently. I'd expect more Chinese companies to take the scene. Companies like Huawei are still private, and solidly have FAANG tier revenue. It seems like they're big enough to not have to go public, but there's rumors of it. Something like TikTok (ByteDance) is able to compete toe to toe with Instagram, product wise. They'd probably be the first serious Facebook competitor.

askafriend 7y ago

I mean we just had Uber. It's still a $68B company despite somewhat mixed sentiment and performance in the public markets.

LavenderLight 7y ago

No real answer to such a question because the amount of ideas to come out and industries already at work; Asking for the next big one could likely be impossible.

AznHisoka 7y ago

Snowflake or Databricks.

toomuchtodo 7y ago

Hashicorp, 2023-2024, ~$20 billion valuation

gt565k 7y ago
eh that's far from big compared to OP's list. single company market cap of $1 trillion vs $20 billion -_-