4 ms·

Zuckerberg's Snapchat Envy Isn’t Disappearing

10 points by T-A 12y ago

zaidf 12y ago
So can someone explain to me the long term value of Snapchat? I've been on Facebook since 2005 and recently tried snapchat after a lot of nagging from someone. It lasted few minutes before we were back on iMessage. For me it boils down to this: if I lose my Facebook account, I feel like I'm losing a 10 year record of my life; if I lose my snapchat account, what do I lose? In my view, until snapchat succeeds at getting people to share things with permanency, it's just another chat app with a ton of traction until folks disappear to the next IM app. Snapchat seems like less fb and more ICQ, AIM Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger etc.
- notastartup 12y ago
  I use to have a active facebook account with hundreds of friends but when I discovered there was a way to permanently delete it, I took the option. I haven't looked back since.
jacques_chester 12y ago
I believe I will start a new VC fund. The sole organising principle is to invest in companies which scare or annoy Mark Zuckerberg.
- notastartup 12y ago
  Even better is if it ends up transfering Facebook billions of dollars over to your account when your startup gets acquired!
notastartup 12y ago
I wonder how these hard to measure metrics really translate into more sales, more cash flow, especially when majority of Snapchat users are creditcard less adolescents and starving undergraduates. Maybe as Google is attempting to cover all aspects of search, Facebook is doing the same when it comes to social networking, but unlike search which has a very narrow definition of expected outcome and objective that translates into shifting the user's attention to relevant ads (I google to get specific information, might be interested in relevant ads that provide more of it), social networking is a lot more uncertain, lot of more elusive goals (I chat on fb or look up someone on FB for laying, friendship) that is resistant to anything that will take the attention away from the social engagement...in large the giant user base is useless while the cost of maintaining such large infrastructure behind it outgrows the actual revenues....it makes very little sense as to why FB would go out of their way to support social networks that serves no other purpose than use up their resources but shareholders seem to think that "there's no way they will screw up monetization, it will happen eventually and match Google to justify the inflated valuation one day" with little analysis on cash. Unless the rules of business have changed that they can purely live on investors hopes of a rosy future rather than net positive cash flow indicate a bubble.
hitchhiker999 12y ago
Serious question: It's just kids who use this stuff right? I assume most people over the age of 25 are pretty much completely bored with / have no use for this kind of thing. Or am I wrong?
- gnur 12y ago
  I'm 25+ (25 and 7 months) and I just started using snap chat with some people I know. The biggest selling point is that nothing is permanent, or at least it has the illusion that nothing is permanent, you don't have to think too much about sending an embarrassing picture because it's gone in 1-10 seconds, which is great for just having fun with someone. I'm not even talking about sexting, just random chats. It's completely against anything I have done so far (any picture I take is stored in at least 5 different locations) that it is almost scary.
ulfw 12y ago
Paranoia. Otherwise I can't explain paying $19,000,000,000 for a messaging app either.

10 points by T-A 12y ago

zaidf 12y ago

So can someone explain to me the long term value of Snapchat? I've been on Facebook since 2005 and recently tried snapchat after a lot of nagging from someone. It lasted few minutes before we were back on iMessage. For me it boils down to this: if I lose my Facebook account, I feel like I'm losing a 10 year record of my life; if I lose my snapchat account, what do I lose? In my view, until snapchat succeeds at getting people to share things with permanency, it's just another chat app with a ton of traction until folks disappear to the next IM app. Snapchat seems like less fb and more ICQ, AIM Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger etc.

notastartup 12y ago
I use to have a active facebook account with hundreds of friends but when I discovered there was a way to permanently delete it, I took the option. I haven't looked back since.

jacques_chester 12y ago

I believe I will start a new VC fund. The sole organising principle is to invest in companies which scare or annoy Mark Zuckerberg.

notastartup 12y ago
Even better is if it ends up transfering Facebook billions of dollars over to your account when your startup gets acquired!

notastartup 12y ago

I wonder how these hard to measure metrics really translate into more sales, more cash flow, especially when majority of Snapchat users are creditcard less adolescents and starving undergraduates. Maybe as Google is attempting to cover all aspects of search, Facebook is doing the same when it comes to social networking, but unlike search which has a very narrow definition of expected outcome and objective that translates into shifting the user's attention to relevant ads (I google to get specific information, might be interested in relevant ads that provide more of it), social networking is a lot more uncertain, lot of more elusive goals (I chat on fb or look up someone on FB for laying, friendship) that is resistant to anything that will take the attention away from the social engagement...in large the giant user base is useless while the cost of maintaining such large infrastructure behind it outgrows the actual revenues....it makes very little sense as to why FB would go out of their way to support social networks that serves no other purpose than use up their resources but shareholders seem to think that "there's no way they will screw up monetization, it will happen eventually and match Google to justify the inflated valuation one day" with little analysis on cash. Unless the rules of business have changed that they can purely live on investors hopes of a rosy future rather than net positive cash flow indicate a bubble.

hitchhiker999 12y ago

Serious question: It's just kids who use this stuff right? I assume most people over the age of 25 are pretty much completely bored with / have no use for this kind of thing. Or am I wrong?

gnur 12y ago
I'm 25+ (25 and 7 months) and I just started using snap chat with some people I know. The biggest selling point is that nothing is permanent, or at least it has the illusion that nothing is permanent, you don't have to think too much about sending an embarrassing picture because it's gone in 1-10 seconds, which is great for just having fun with someone. I'm not even talking about sexting, just random chats. It's completely against anything I have done so far (any picture I take is stored in at least 5 different locations) that it is almost scary.

ulfw 12y ago

Paranoia. Otherwise I can't explain paying $19,000,000,000 for a messaging app either.