Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How much do you think SnapChat is really worth?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–26 of 26 posts

Re: Ask HN: How much do you think SnapChat is really worth?

#21

Post by 001sky »

WhiteFoxx wrote: post #20
coralreef wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who knows. Pre/post roll ads on snaps. Stickers...

Exactly, who knows....

Which is a problem for advertisers. not to be meta, but its true. marketers want to but mindshare, and they want to make sure their pitch is not going to be taken out of context. not knowing what your pitch will look like in context is usually a non-starter for ad sales guys. Of course SnapChat may not want to deal with advertisers as that would require tracking and verification, which might put off some end users as well. That seems to leave fewer possible business models. Although they may invent something new, so lets not count them fully out.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you think SnapChat is really worth?

#22

Post by pathy »

The problem I see with Snapchat is that:

a) currently no revenue, I imagine it is harder to monetize Snapchat than Facebook et al. But it is not my area of expertise so I can give them the benefit of the doubt that they can monetize it.

b) They are one lawsuit away from blowing up. I can see a future where they get hit with a child porn lawsuit or something similar. I assume they have good lawyers but it is still a rather significant risk.

I think it was a mistake not to take one of those billion dollar deals but I have been wrong before. If they can monetize their service and avoid lawsuits it could become huge.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you think SnapChat is really worth?

#23

Post by anywherenotes »

I think social media services can grow extremely large, but monetizing turns people off. Facebook is tricky, because the data you post there is available forever, I fully expect to use facebook 30 years from now to look at my kid's pictures (that I take and post now). This is very different from a blurt on twitter or a video designed to disappear in seconds.

I can't imagine these services being worth as much as facebook, and I don't know what they're thinking turning that amount down. They have no revenue.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you think SnapChat is really worth?

#24

Post by misterparker »

brotchie wrote: post #15

$3bb Supply-demand. If there's a suitor willing to drop $3bb on Snapchat, then that's the market clearing price is it not? Given that Snapchat didn't accept, perhaps it's worth a tiny bit more.

when someone rejects the demand, it doesn't mean it's worth more, unless there is someone else willing to offer more. But you're dead on that it's worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. "worth" is a tricky word. We default to thinking that all things have an intrinsic value, when really nothing does. The value of something is only equal to what someone is willing to do to obtain that something.

People think gold has this intrinsic value, but does not either. It's "natural" value is also soley based upon the demand that is put upon it. The fact that people find it beautiful, and that is a great conductor of electricity, are things that are desired about it. And so the more people that discover the uses of gold, the more demand grows.

If there were no googles, or apples, or yahoos, or any of these huge companies with really deep pockets, then there would be no one to offer $3billion for a company like snapchat, and there would be no way it could ever obtain a "worth" of 3 billion. Because, again - anything is only worth what someone is willing to pay (or do) to obtain it. Even your job.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you think SnapChat is really worth?

#25

Post by imsofuture »

shubhamjain wrote: post #16
imsofuture wrote: post #3

$0 I hadn't heard of SnapChat until this acquisition story broke. I guess I'm out of touch or something? Anyway, no revenue and no real hope of revenue = $0. VC can blow smoke up your ass until they collapse, blue in the face, but it's not a winning proposition.

I am not an investor and have very vague clue of such eccentric valuations but let me get my facts straight. An app which is analogous to a "teen trend", generates no revenue, has a very little or no clue how to either, is worth $3B? Does the brand value and niche matter more than possible potential of company, "money-wise"?

To some people! :)
Post reply on HN