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Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

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Re: Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

#111

Post by AndrewKemendo »

milesokeefe wrote: post #84
argonaut wrote: post #35

People need to stop focusing their criticism on how stupid the app is or how they're going to lose all their users. It's almost a meme by now of how people say this every time Snapchat is brought up. By now it's a foregone conclusion, and requires active ignorance and not really caring to keep an open mind, to continue to hold onto that belief in the face of tremendous evidence that 1) Snapchat is very popular, 2) Sn…

Perhaps it doesn't scale well, but their sponsored face filters seem to be getting a good reception. It's rare for people to find ads fun.

It's also the most widely used AR implementation - if somewhat trivial and non-complicated.

It might seem silly from the outside, but that's actually meaningful because it gets people used to the idea of modifying the "real world" with a contextual addition.

Re: Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

#112

Post by alaskamiller »

vonklaus wrote: post #101
alaskamiller wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All those grafs and you still can't figure it out. Say you have a Snapchat account and follow 25 of your friends. Each of them are active and contribute 30 second snap stories maybe 4 times a day. That means it's 50 minutes of footage. A day. Say it's not just friends anymore but you're also following brands or brands pay your friends to act out something as well. Snapchat is the new MTV. With instant ability to chat…

look i have crazy theories which I think are sane and correct(they are) so I am willing to give this a shot. Can you please walk me through the next 5 years of how you see this progressing. As I said a lot, I am not a user but I don't find it compelling personally but i honestly would love to be proved wrong. If you could even do it high level, I would be really interested in core growth and monetization strategies.…

In a world at the cusp of robots driving cars and trucks, robots cooking your food, where eggs can be made from plants, the internet coverage will reach 100% saturation, where basic income is being trialed, and that saudi arabia is investing two trillion dollars of their assets...

Does it really matter to you that someone got billions of dollars so that 100 million people every single day gets an hour at least of entertainment intermixed with native advertising that snapchat charges $100k a day for?

Does the world really need you, personally, to worry and save them from this?

Does the world really need you, personally, to wander around a museum and remarking on how much a Picasso or Hirst is really worth?

Your ego makes you blind. Your cynicism makes you jaded. Go build something and don't stop until your work is being considered as such.

Re: Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

#113

Post by jakebellacera »

sotojuan wrote: post #100
wtvanhest wrote: post #39

Every single person here seems negative about Snapchat. I am 30+, use it occasionally, and see more and more of my older friends signing up. Especially those friends far away from the echo chamber. This fundraising feels smart for investors who want a great return and for the company to use to get to an IPO. If you don't use Snapchat, or haven't used it in a few years, it is probably time you take a second look.

People on tech forums are typically negative about social media apps and platforms. It's pretty interesting.

Which is ironic, because tech forums, reddit, HN, etc are "social" sites as well.

Re: Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

#114

Post by pjc50 »

overcast wrote: post #77
argonaut wrote: post #35

People need to stop focusing their criticism on how stupid the app is or how they're going to lose all their users. It's almost a meme by now of how people say this every time Snapchat is brought up. By now it's a foregone conclusion, and requires active ignorance and not really caring to keep an open mind, to continue to hold onto that belief in the face of tremendous evidence that 1) Snapchat is very popular, 2) Sn…

I don't understand why use cases 1 and 2 wouldn't just send a text message picture. Why would you bother with a 3rd party app that erases them? With that said, that is probably the least percentage reason as to why people use it. The greatest being for sending half naked photos to strangers.

Text message pictures are IME incredibly unreliable and you may be charged for them. And god help you if you accidentally send one internationally; who knows what it might cost?

Re: Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

#116

Post by mdorazio »

chubot wrote: post #40
argonaut wrote: post #35

People need to stop focusing their criticism on how stupid the app is or how they're going to lose all their users. It's almost a meme by now of how people say this every time Snapchat is brought up. By now it's a foregone conclusion, and requires active ignorance and not really caring to keep an open mind, to continue to hold onto that belief in the face of tremendous evidence that 1) Snapchat is very popular, 2) Sn…

Don't forget that lots of people said Facebook wasn't monetizable either, just a few years ago.

I don't remember that. People thought that Facebook couldn't match Google-level ad revenue, but the monetization model was abundantly clear for Facebook as soon as it became obvious how much personal data they were tracking. Facebook IPO'd in 2012, at which point it already had over $4B in revenue, and had been generating revenue for years before that.

The much better example is Twitter, which people did indeed say wasn't monetizable, still isn't profitable, and has absolutely tanked since its IPO.

Re: Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

#117

Post by AndrewKemendo »

mikeryan wrote: post #12

There's been a bunch of apps out there that have taken off and completely surprised me. But I can't think of another succes that makes me feel out of touch more than a 20B valuation for what launched as "the app that sends disappearing images". Kudos to the team though. Evan and Co, seem to have made a lot of very smart decisions in growing this business.

As someone who didn't get it for a long time, and is now a multiple daily user I can tell you what made the difference for me:

1. Understanding that the whole point is to lower the bar of entry for visual communication because it's low risk

2. The "Stories" aspect lets me get intimate with my friends around their day to day, when I can't be around them.

2.a. Watching others who aren't my friends who are giving good or interesting info is incredible to me. Snapchat actually allows for lifecasting in a way that is not obtrusive or complicated as it only requires a few seconds at a time.

Those things are pretty breakthrough for communications IMO.

Re: Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

#118

Post by downandout »

cassieramen wrote: post #102
imaginenore wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're forgetting that the valuation of the company has been growing exponentially https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrinknp_800_800/AAEAAQAAAAA... With this latest round it exceeds $20 billion.

This is part of what I'm asking. The valuation is growing, as is the amount of money their taking. That means the company now has to exit for that much more in order for employees to see any return. If I'm an early employee I now have to hope they exit for $X billion for my shares to be worth anything. If they exit for less there's a chance I see nothing after investing years of my life and watching them pass on a $3…

My guess is that with such a massive round, at least some employees were allowed to take some money off the table at this valuation. I'm not sure what their policy is on secondary markets, but employees may be cashing in at the current valuation there as well. If that is the case, those that joined near the time of the $3 billion offer are likely very happy.

Re: Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

#119

Post by vonklaus »

alaskamiller wrote: post #112
vonklaus wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

look i have crazy theories which I think are sane and correct(they are) so I am willing to give this a shot. Can you please walk me through the next 5 years of how you see this progressing. As I said a lot, I am not a user but I don't find it compelling personally but i honestly would love to be proved wrong. If you could even do it high level, I would be really interested in core growth and monetization strategies.…

In a world at the cusp of robots driving cars and trucks, robots cooking your food, where eggs can be made from plants, the internet coverage will reach 100% saturation, where basic income is being trialed, and that saudi arabia is investing two trillion dollars of their assets... Does it really matter to you that someone got billions of dollars so that 100 million people every single day gets an hour at least of ent…

idk what about my comment seems disingenuous, i was actually really interested in this in case i missed some huge cool trend. i am interested in products and technology for their own sake. i would love to help the world pisitively, but i am sure it is not depending on me. i was just curious for a different perspective as i am contrarian to some extent, so i was asking for an unhoulds boundless guess at what snapchat could be to add more information to my appraisal of the situation.

> go build something.

i mean, i am. but again, i was just legit curious what i was missing. no need to be a dick about it.

edited out some info

> Brilliant and great insights building on what’s happening now and been happening in the tech industry. Interacting with someone/something that doesn’t judge me opens up a new dimension of conversations. It might normalize honesty in society.

Quote I found interesting.

Re: Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

#120

Post by gooserock »

cassieramen wrote: post #102
imaginenore wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're forgetting that the valuation of the company has been growing exponentially https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrinknp_800_800/AAEAAQAAAAA... With this latest round it exceeds $20 billion.

This is part of what I'm asking. The valuation is growing, as is the amount of money their taking. That means the company now has to exit for that much more in order for employees to see any return. If I'm an early employee I now have to hope they exit for $X billion for my shares to be worth anything. If they exit for less there's a chance I see nothing after investing years of my life and watching them pass on a $3…

Presumably though, employees also got paid a very, very healthy salary while working there too, so it's far from a complete loss...
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