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Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

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Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#21

Post by johngrefe »

So people are super hyped about the Snapchat Spectacles. I get the excitement, they are Google Glass at a proletariat price, so owning them doesn't make you a GlassHole. Snapchat is one of the most popular LA Unicorns. Everyone is waiting for them to go public.

So how did they release their big hardware add on? Limited time vending machines. They are spinning it as cool, but with XMas, their supposed capitalization and user base, it's a pretty big warning that these are not released through a consumer channel. They are probably experiencing major headwinds keeping them out of commercialization, or a major cash crisis.

I'm want to side with the cash crisis. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I don't think their balance sheet is going to be very strong, if the fundamentals were there, Amazon and Best Buy would be distributing the product. Sure, tell me its a marketing strategy for exclusivity, I agree, it's great. It should have been done over the summer, moving into store shelves last week for Xmas sales.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#23

Post by lesdeuxmagots »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #17

Can some one tell me why they use "confidentially"? When they have been talking about this for months and everyone in the tech/social business knows about it. I guess it's confidential since they didn't blast fireworks and cannons. Anyhow, I say that they will soon(if not now) be known as the cool social network while Facebook will live as the old but reliable techie social network , similar to the Apple/Microsoft de…

Its a type of filing. Confidentially means that we cannot go so EDGAR and look up the filing right now, and they will not need to disclose the documents publicly until very close to the actual IPO. This is a relatively new type of filing that was introduced in the JOBS act, designed to encourage emerging businesses to go public. You can read about the specifics here:

https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/guidance/cfjumpstartfa...

Normally, if the company does not qualify for confidential filing, we would be able to go and see the draft S-1 on EDGAR 6 - 9 months in advance of the actual IPO.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#24

Post by 27182818284 »

taytus wrote: post #12

I'm a professional photographer with about 16K + Instagram followers. I used snapchat to stream behind the scenes photos and videos and retouching tutorials, but that was a black box. Yes, I had comments open and I interacted with my friends and fans, but I couldn't tag anyone, or hashtags, discoverability is a serious issues in that platform. I started using Instagram stories and now I have the same views per snaps…

>but I couldn't tag anyone, or hashtags, discoverability is a serious issues in that platform.

You're looking at it through the lens of a professional photographer, though. When I speak to young people the lack of discovery isn't a concern at all. If anything I'd contest that is one of the reasons Snapchat grew so quickly—you aren't tagged without you realizing it in a friend's picture, your parents aren't searching for your name, etc.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#25

Post by pfarnsworth »

Tepix wrote: post #2

Could someone explain a) Why they need so much money? Don't tell me it's to produce some spectacles b) Why they are worth so much? I get that they have an interesting user base (young people), but they are having a hard time making money, aren't they? That $19b WhatsApp purchase hasn't exactly earned a lot of money yet, has it? It's still a very long bet, especially with Facebook being forbidden to collect the data n…

"Need" money? You mean "want" money, right? And there's no wrong reason to want money since this is the US. Maybe he'll turn into a huge benefactor like Bill Gates and return all that money back to charitable foundations, etc.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#26

Post by jonnyy »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #17

Can some one tell me why they use "confidentially"? When they have been talking about this for months and everyone in the tech/social business knows about it. I guess it's confidential since they didn't blast fireworks and cannons. Anyhow, I say that they will soon(if not now) be known as the cool social network while Facebook will live as the old but reliable techie social network , similar to the Apple/Microsoft de…

It reflects a change in IPO filing law. Quoting Wikipedia:

"Under the JOBS Act, it has been possible since April 2012 for "emerging growth companies" to file a Form S-1 on a confidential basis, only making the contents public 21 days prior to the road show for the IPO."

With many IPO filings, the financial docs are immediately available to review. Because Snap filed confidentially, we are not given access to these docs until shortly before the actual sale of the IPO shares.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#27

Post by BurningFrog »

sfaf wrote: post #6
Tepix wrote: post #2

Could someone explain a) Why they need so much money? Don't tell me it's to produce some spectacles b) Why they are worth so much? I get that they have an interesting user base (young people), but they are having a hard time making money, aren't they? That $19b WhatsApp purchase hasn't exactly earned a lot of money yet, has it? It's still a very long bet, especially with Facebook being forbidden to collect the data n…

a) To build an ad business capable of handling $100m of ads. You need massive investments in sales, infrastructure, tools, etc. to build a business like that b) They have one of the fastest growing user bases in the social space, their users spends an astounding amount of time on the app (estimated at 30 minutes per day), and their user base is the most targeted demographic for demographics. Also they have literally…

I wonder if the user base that rushes in so fast to Snapchat might not rush as quickly to the next cool app, whenever it pops up.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#28

Post by rgbrenner »

taytus wrote: post #12

I'm a professional photographer with about 16K + Instagram followers. I used snapchat to stream behind the scenes photos and videos and retouching tutorials, but that was a black box. Yes, I had comments open and I interacted with my friends and fans, but I couldn't tag anyone, or hashtags, discoverability is a serious issues in that platform. I started using Instagram stories and now I have the same views per snaps…

It definitely sounds like Instagram is a better fit for that. But is that really Snapchat's core use case?

There's definitely some overlap in uses, but instagram isn't a complete replacement for Snapchat. And the areas where instagram doesn't cover snapchat, it seems like are snapchat's primary uses.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#29

Post by taytus »

timdorr wrote: post #19
taytus wrote: post #12

I'm a professional photographer with about 16K + Instagram followers. I used snapchat to stream behind the scenes photos and videos and retouching tutorials, but that was a black box. Yes, I had comments open and I interacted with my friends and fans, but I couldn't tag anyone, or hashtags, discoverability is a serious issues in that platform. I started using Instagram stories and now I have the same views per snaps…

With their 15 second looping videos, they're already eating up the leftovers of Vine.

I agree, and I see a lot of Boomerang videos now being posted into IG stories too. To me Instagram provides more tools.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#30

Post by deepnotderp »

johngrefe wrote: post #21

So people are super hyped about the Snapchat Spectacles. I get the excitement, they are Google Glass at a proletariat price, so owning them doesn't make you a GlassHole. Snapchat is one of the most popular LA Unicorns. Everyone is waiting for them to go public. So how did they release their big hardware add on? Limited time vending machines. They are spinning it as cool, but with XMas, their supposed capitalization a…

My personal hypothesis on this is that they're eating a loss at the price range right now and are trying to figure out if people are interested in the spectacles and at what price.
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