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Twitter, producers of a web-app, have raised US$139M. This is US$1M more than Tesla, which is producing an actual product (electric car). Something is very wr
by brk 17y ago
Twitter, producers of a web-app, have raised US$139M. This is US$1M more than Tesla, which is producing an actual product (electric car).
Something is very wrong with this picture...
- jacquesm 17y agoValuations of web companies are the weirdest thing in finance. I think the reasoning goes something like this: if they become profitable, they'll be massively so because many costs that the maker of a physical product has to contend with do not exist. That doesn't give the beginning of a clue on how to become profitable in the first place though, and there's the catch.
- tptacek 17y agoThey're going to become profitable by buying somebody who is already a little profitable, and who will become massively more profitable given exclusive and favored access to Twitter's attention and network. Is, I think, the simplest explanation of why they're taking in so much money.
- jacquesm 17y agoAny suggestions on the target ?
- evgen 17y agoAnother way you could look at it is like this: Twitter, who produce a service used globally by millions of people every day raised $139M, while Tesla, who produce an object that only a handful have ever seen and even fewer will ever buy is getting 1M less to try to take on some of the largest industrial conglomerates in the world. Something is wrong with the picture, but which of those two are more likely to make a good return on the investment could be debated for quite a while...
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- toby 17y agoI believe these are just 2009 investment rounds... from what I understand, Tesla has actually raised close to $800 million total if you count debt financing. Twitter's is still less than $200 million total.
- brk 17y agoAh, good point!