5 ms·

Everyone is saying how 1.8B is a ton, but I’m kinda surprised that it’s “barely” more than the Depop acquisition today at 1.6B.

AbrahamParangi 5y ago
Stack overflow is probably responsible for increasing global developer productivity by maybe ~1000x the acquisition price. In a sense it’s a tragedy of the commons.
- toyg 5y ago
  Why must it be a tragedy? The owners were well-compensated. Shouldn't we celebrate instead the amazing result/effort ratio one can achieve these days with a basic website...? SO was notoriously and pragmatically simple.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- switz 5y ago
  You'll never capture all of the value you create. But in the case of StackOverflow it really must be a large schism. SO really did help the world. Count me++.
- rightbyte 5y ago
  Stack overflow's users, please.
- pishpash 5y ago
  Why should they capture all of that value, most of which was generated by the community itself? They should get paid for the generated efficiency but should not be paid for the gross value passing through the network.
  - AbrahamParangi 5y ago
    I'm estimating that the marginal value add of SO is order of magnitude 1T, on no particular basis.
- MauranKilom 5y ago
  > Stack overflow is probably responsible for increasing global developer productivity by maybe ~1000x the acquisition price. And almost every single bit of it is due to community work, not the people inside company. (That is not to say the company is irrelevant - but seeing how consequently stackexchange dropped bricks on everybody's feet two years ago and the community still carried on gives you some perspective on what is keeping the site alive).
addicted 5y ago
The biggest problem for SO in terms of monetization is how freely available their data is. For example, if you simply want an answer, Google itself will extract the top 1-3 answers and present them to you without ever opening SO. Further, SO has explicitly avoided the most intrusive advertising, further limiting their monetization potential. The one area where I think SO could have done a lot better was building a better social network out of their website.
herogreen 5y ago
Or less than Minecraft (2B)
berkes 5y ago
Such valuations are most based on future revenue. Depop already makes solid revenue and showed growth of 100% last year. Stackoverflow is still struggling with revenue. It is not about how many users you have, or how much value you offer to those users. But all about how much money you make off them.
- notsureaboutpg 5y ago
  We all know it's about money. It's more of a reflection about how little money knowledge makes you, and how much money selling clothes, makeup, and other self-image enhancers makes.

AbrahamParangi 5y ago

Stack overflow is probably responsible for increasing global developer productivity by maybe ~1000x the acquisition price. In a sense it’s a tragedy of the commons.

toyg 5y ago
Why must it be a tragedy? The owners were well-compensated. Shouldn't we celebrate instead the amazing result/effort ratio one can achieve these days with a basic website...? SO was notoriously and pragmatically simple.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
switz 5y ago
You'll never capture all of the value you create. But in the case of StackOverflow it really must be a large schism. SO really did help the world. Count me++.
rightbyte 5y ago
Stack overflow's users, please.
pishpash 5y ago
Why should they capture all of that value, most of which was generated by the community itself? They should get paid for the generated efficiency but should not be paid for the gross value passing through the network.
- AbrahamParangi 5y ago
  I'm estimating that the marginal value add of SO is order of magnitude 1T, on no particular basis.
MauranKilom 5y ago
> Stack overflow is probably responsible for increasing global developer productivity by maybe ~1000x the acquisition price. And almost every single bit of it is due to community work, not the people inside company. (That is not to say the company is irrelevant - but seeing how consequently stackexchange dropped bricks on everybody's feet two years ago and the community still carried on gives you some perspective on what is keeping the site alive).

addicted 5y ago

The biggest problem for SO in terms of monetization is how freely available their data is. For example, if you simply want an answer, Google itself will extract the top 1-3 answers and present them to you without ever opening SO. Further, SO has explicitly avoided the most intrusive advertising, further limiting their monetization potential. The one area where I think SO could have done a lot better was building a better social network out of their website.

herogreen 5y ago

Or less than Minecraft (2B)

berkes 5y ago

Such valuations are most based on future revenue. Depop already makes solid revenue and showed growth of 100% last year. Stackoverflow is still struggling with revenue. It is not about how many users you have, or how much value you offer to those users. But all about how much money you make off them.

notsureaboutpg 5y ago
We all know it's about money. It's more of a reflection about how little money knowledge makes you, and how much money selling clothes, makeup, and other self-image enhancers makes.