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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

#121

Post by liamzebedee »

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…

> 30 minutes per day

I don't know about you guys, but my friends spend probably upwards of an hour a day at least.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#123

Post by nihonde »

monkmartinez wrote: post #120
nihonde wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I will go further. I live in Japan and use Line to communicate with everyone except really old people. Stickers are as basic as language. It is an evolution of our current mode of communication and is quite expressive. Like all languages, it occurs somewhat spontaneously, but I can tell you for sure that Line has the lightning in a bottle right now whereas Apple, Facebook, Snap, etc. just don't get it. Like…

It's fleeting. There are lots of social phenomena in Japan that have never taken off in the States and vice-versa. Remember when Zynga and Farmville were the best thing since sliced bread? Remember the dotcom days when companies were worth millions(Billions) based on potential? That is what is happening here. There is no hook to keep these users for the next 5 to 10 years. Something "cooler/hipper/awesomer/badasser"…

Your takeaway from my comment was that I think everything Japan does will later be popular in America? I didn't say that. I do see plenty of examples of stuff that pops in the west years after it was a hit in Japan. However, the point of my earlier comment is that Japan (and many other parts of Asia) have been adapting their language to new media, and stickers are an important extension of that, and thus are tied to quite a fundamental aspect of human life.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#124

Post by jlgaddis »

ericzawo wrote: post #82
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…

There are a lot (15+) of people 25 and under in my family and I can tell you every single one of them uses Snapchat. While Instagram Stories very much replicates the general function of Snap, I really want to know some of those engagement numbers based on age, or even geography, and if it really has been all that much of a gut punch since that Instagram feature rolled out.

I definitely think there's an "age thing" with regard to Snapchat.

I'm 37 and I can think of maybe two or three friends around my age that use Snapchat. On the other hand, both my recent ex-girlfriend (24) and current girlfriend (22) use Snapchat constantly (exaggeration perhaps, but 20+ times a day is not unusual) and, of course, all of their friends do too.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#125

Post by RandallBrown »

jklinger410 wrote: post #65
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…

As an internet marketer I have got to agree with you on this completely. No one wants to even give a second of time to the ads in Snapchat. They are obtrusive and in the middle breaking up the content you want to see. For personal branding Snapchat is great. For communicating directly with people you care about, Snapchat is great. I honestly don't see it going anywhere beyond that. Probably going out of business due…

Snapchat makes money from more than just ads.

People (and businesses) pay for filters. I've seen people do them for their weddings.

Also, there's the featured content, which seems pretty popular.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#126

Post by huac »

photogrammetry wrote: post #113
chollida1 wrote: post #4

Really interested in learning if Snap is more Facebook or Twitter. This could be a big litmus test for the tech IPO. 2 things I'm very interested in: 1) If the rumors are correct that they are looking to raise 4 Billion at a roughly $40 Billion valuation. If you assume that their absolute pie in the sky max valuation ever is similar to what facebook is now, roughly 340 Billion, then that's not alot of upside for inve…

>1) If the rumors are correct that they are looking to raise 4 Billion at a roughly $40 Billion valuation. Was under the impression Snapchat was given a $3-5 billion valuation. I find it hard to accept that Snapchat is worth the same as Tesla and SpaceX combined. In other words, is [a 400-employee company whose core product works only on cell phones to show annoying ads to teenagers as they send each other photos, an…

Tesla and SpaceX aren't worth that much for much the same reasons you've outlined - they have massive capex requirements, high employee overhead and retention costs, and really real technology risk (it's literally rocket science).

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#127

Post by huac »

deepnotderp wrote: post #30
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.

They'll probably create different models for different price points. Capturing the teen market is more important than the tech yuppie market, but if you can gouge a willing audience, you probably should.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#128

Post by randycupertino »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #111
nothrabannosir wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's great for a light, whimsical touch. Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Photos of yourself making a fool of yourself, everywhere, all the time. Stupid puns, stupid jokes, stupid selfies, stupid stuff which is really the best stuff, if you ask me :). No ultra well thought out filtered perfect square omg look at the color chroma jesus on my toast kind of photos. That'd be a waste of time. Just passing tho…

Do people really have that much time to create and view junk? Random photos of whatever? I'm unsure how this is better than SMS/MMS/iMessage, or how it has more value. Twitter with pics and video in private groups?

Haha... exactly. today I didn't even have time to eat lunch at my desk. How do people have time to create and view that many random snaps?

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#129

Post by randycupertino »

Balgair wrote: post #63
beambot wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is why Snapchat is so popular: Because you don't have a shit-ton of businesses targeting you to cram ads down your throat?

Bingo. But the bone is cooked with the steak. Eventually, the VCs will want a return on the cash, and then you need to have customers that want to use snap-chat. There are 2 options then: Turn it into a paid service that you pay to use, or turn on the ads. I think we all know that most kids aren't going to pony up to use snapchat, so ads it is. They have to turn on the ads, and then, as the marketers are the customer…

> But the bone is cooked with the steak.

I've never heard that expression before! Of course googling it I get a million steak recipes. Can you explain what it means?

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#130

Post by bfstein »

photogrammetry wrote: post #113
chollida1 wrote: post #4

Really interested in learning if Snap is more Facebook or Twitter. This could be a big litmus test for the tech IPO. 2 things I'm very interested in: 1) If the rumors are correct that they are looking to raise 4 Billion at a roughly $40 Billion valuation. If you assume that their absolute pie in the sky max valuation ever is similar to what facebook is now, roughly 340 Billion, then that's not alot of upside for inve…

>1) If the rumors are correct that they are looking to raise 4 Billion at a roughly $40 Billion valuation. Was under the impression Snapchat was given a $3-5 billion valuation. I find it hard to accept that Snapchat is worth the same as Tesla and SpaceX combined. In other words, is [a 400-employee company whose core product works only on cell phones to show annoying ads to teenagers as they send each other photos, an…

A company is worth the percentage it captures of the value it creates. You alluded to it in your comment--Snap has a much lower headcount and an order of magnitude less operating costs, so if anything it kind of makes sense that they'd be valued at a relative premium.

Also, you may not like Snapchat, but to say it deserves to die when it both a) employs real people and b) clearly serves a market need is such a terrible thing to wish for.

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