4 ms·

Tech valuations continue to get curiouser and curiouser

• nilkn 12y ago
  Minecraft is actually extremely profitable, though. It's rumored that Notch already has a personal income in the realm of $100M/year derived from real revenue, not funding. This is very, very different from, say, Snapchat.
  • nly 12y ago
    From what I can tell they still depend almost entirely on Minecraft, which, if I've followed gaming correctly, has as many registered players as WoW but pay no recurring subscription fee. Rough calculations seem to indicate MS are going to have to double year on year profitability for ~4-5 years to break even.
    • LanceH 12y ago
      There is also merchandise as a revenue stream. The interesting aspect of the purchase is the mindshare. I have kids in elementary and middle school and as far as I can tell, all their friends play it. When my kids went as Steve and a pig (from minecraft) for Halloween last year, they were drawing shouts nonstop from all the kids. Most parents had no idea. How you turn that mindshare into money is math I don't understand.
• petercooper 12y ago
  Maybe, but this one makes 100x more financial sense than Instagram or WhatsApp's valuations.
  • rwissmann 12y ago
    Instagram was a steal (and Google fucked up). WhatsApp was pricey, but that was driven by defensive strategy rather then pure financials.