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Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round

techcrunch.com

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

#241

Post by gjolund »

nostrademons wrote: post #229
gjolund wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you honestly suggesting that a company with fewer than 200 employees is worth more than: * GM * Ford * Honda Combined. That is ridiculous and just highlights how big a bubble is brewing in SV. We value a couple hundred million fickle users more than hundreds of thousands of actual employees, physical factories, and entire supply chain industries.

This is a misunderstanding of where shareholder value comes from. The valuation (market cap) of a company is a reflection of the value of the assets that the company owns . That includes IP, trademarks, brand assets (somewhat perversely, this also includes user habits), business relationships & contracts, any resellable physical goods or cash that the company owns, and all future cash flows that will accrue to the co…

Really solid reply, and a great explanation.

I completely understand that from a shareholder perspective companies like facebook and snapchat are huge wins.

However my argument is that as a society these companies have very little value. I believe that the current wave of tech startups are the equivalent of shareholder junk food. I nice relatively immediate return, and no real long term value.

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

#242

Post by gjolund »

argonaut wrote: post #236
gjolund wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those companies employ hundreds of thousands of people and entire supply chains. Snapchat employ's next to no one in comparison and is worth more than entire industries.

Yep. That's why they're actually even worse off. All else equal , the more employees a company employs, the worse of an investment it is, because costs are greater.

As a business they might be less profitable, but as a society we benefit more from their existence.

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

#243

Post by gjolund »

canttestthis wrote: post #213
gjolund wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those companies employ hundreds of thousands of people and entire supply chains. Snapchat employ's next to no one in comparison and is worth more than entire industries.

You're good at moving the goalposts in a debate.

If you have something to contribute I would like to hear it.

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

#244

Post by gjolund »

macandcheese wrote: post #157

Snapchat is the medium that most closely represents a real life conversation - between individuals, between friend groups, between performers & fans, etc. That's why it's popular and will continue to be so. The beauty of Snapchat is that you don't need to think about what you are posting: It's ephemeral, it's kept close to the vest (you choose explicitly who sees it), and above all, it's without reservation. I don't…

"The beauty of Snapchat is that you don't need to think about what you are posting"

Exactly why it holds no value at all for me.

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

#245

Post by jamiequint »

gjolund wrote: post #226
sotojuan wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I can only speak for myself here. I have no problem with snapchat the app. I think it is dumb, and don't enjoy using it, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist. What I do have a problem with is Snapchat being put on a pedestal, and perpetuating the SV cash grab business model. Get a bunch of users with a trendy app, data mine the shit out of them, and serve them ads until the app folds. There is no lasting val…

Yeah, that cash grab model sure didn't work out for Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, etc. Good thing those finally failed due to the complete lack of value being provided and their associated pesky ad-based business models /s.

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

#246

Post by gjolund »

cassieramen wrote: post #78

How are snapchat employees making out here? It seems like share dilution and even more investors getting exit preference has got to be eroding value like crazy. Perhaps someone with some experience can shed some light here, if you joined snapchat 2 or 3 years ago are you seeing all of your supposed value evaporating away?

This is actually really bad for employees.

It is just more people that snapchat has to pay back after an exit before they pay their employees.

Snapchat employees around 200 people, that works out to 9m per employee for this round.

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

#247

Post by bqe »

eightysix_four wrote: post #104
bqe wrote: post #28

Can someone who uses Snapchat routinely tell me why you use it routinely? I've been using it for a few weeks to send a picture or two to the few people I know who use it, but it seems pretty limited. I follow a few "famous" people on it, and they basically just post random images of them walking around NYC or them traveling. I don't yet see the benefit.

I deal with the three "major" networks like so: Facebook - Accomplishments/events I want shared out to a broad network. Highly "filtered" view of my life (and my friend's lives). Twitter - Less content but less filter, more off the cuff thoughts or broadcasting something I find interesting to a broad network of followers. Snapchat - High content, no filter. Snapchat photos can be "bad", things in them can be mildly i…

This explanation makes the most sense to me. I've moved away from friends in the past few years, and we use a combination of methods to keep in touch, but however you do it, it seems like they just get farther away because some things just aren't worth an email or a Facebook message.

Snapchat (if they used it) would be a good way to stay casually in touch with them.

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

#248

Post by nickpsecurity »

nostrademons wrote: post #233
nickpsecurity wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost a good comeback. Yet, Facebook had obvious ways to monetize it's data plus lots of data types to monetize. It was inherent in its design. Also, semi-proven by MySpace. What is comparable for SnapChat? Seems more contrained.

The business model for SnapChat is the same as for TV ads (and for YouTube). Intersperse branded video advertising before the user can get to the content that they're actually seeking. TV ads is a $60-80B business. People in the 18-34 demographic (which in SnapChat's case really means the 13-29 demographic - I don't know anyone over the age of 30 that actually uses SnapChat) already spend 8x as much time on SnapChat…

It's a possibility. They can just jump apps easily in this sector as it's more ephemeral by nature. What's odds of SnapChat staying popular enough for high-profit if they start interrupting conversations with video ads and alternatives exist? I imagine something similar to when SMS limitations were bullshit but WhatApp existed.

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

#249

Post by gjolund »

jamiequint wrote: post #245
gjolund wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only speak for myself here. I have no problem with snapchat the app. I think it is dumb, and don't enjoy using it, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist. What I do have a problem with is Snapchat being put on a pedestal, and perpetuating the SV cash grab business model. Get a bunch of users with a trendy app, data mine the shit out of them, and serve them ads until the app folds. There is no lasting val…

Yeah, that cash grab model sure didn't work out for Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, etc. Good thing those finally failed due to the complete lack of value being provided and their associated pesky ad-based business models /s.

I noticed you left Twitter out, which is odd because it is the app that most closely resembles snapchat.

FB acquired Instagram for its user base. Amazon acquired Twitch for its user base. Google acquired Youtube for its user base.

How many snapchat users do you think also use those apps? How much additional value is being extracted from them via snapchat?

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

#250

Post by gjolund »

vgt wrote: post #80

Shameless Google Cloud plug: Snapchat runs entirely on Google Cloud Platform, and have famously declared that they have 0 Ops people because everything they use is fully-managed and no-ops. This is one of the reasons they are able to deliver features at such a rapid pace - they aren't worried about scale or reliability the way anyone at the scale is on-premise or on AWS/Azure.

This just reinforces my belief that scale is a very solved problem.

It takes minimal effort to scale infrastructure these days, which is fantastic.

It also reinforces that there is nothing special about snapchat besides its user base, which is mirrored on half a dozen other social networks.

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