Live data from Hacker News

Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

bloomberg.com

111–120 of 369 posts

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#111
post #85

I'm happy for the NYSE that this went well. SNAP has done some pretty large volume so far with no problems. Interestingly enough, well atleast to someone who cares about the cash equity markets, the NYSE actually did a test run last week to try and simulate the chaos that occurs during any hot IPO. So now we know that there is atleast some appetite for shares with no controlling interest and no indication of paying o…

> So now we know that there is atleast some appetite for shares with no controlling interest and no indication of paying out a dividend any time soon. A current market cap of 30 Billion is a pretty darn big accomplishment! This is really disturbing. I don't know if its an indicator of too much money in the market, or just the fact that the market itself has expanded so much. Why would investors be OK with losing powe…

Profit? Investors want a return, they don't really care about power (more or less). If you can get 10% over 3-5 years who cares.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#112
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's worth noting that Twitter essentially lost to Facebook. Facebook's dominance pigeonholed and limited what Twitter could evolve to. And I'm not sure there's room for more than a couple social networks. I don't see who SnapChat will lose to besides themselves (i.e. monetization). IMO Facebook/Instagram isn't well positioned win today's 13-25 demographic. The point is, someone will win. And right now I'm no…

I see Facebook as the email of this generation. It's not exciting, it doesn't change a whole lot, and virtually everybody has it. I think we're just seeing a lot of novelty, flash in the pan apps coming and going while Facebook maintains it's boring yet stable position.

Facebook is a better messaging platform than SMS, for me, because I have friends spread across the globe that I can contact with a simple internet connection.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#113
post #7

I know that the Snapchat platform is worth something, it has high engagement and adoption of 18-24 year old age segment, and that is worth a lot in terms of attention and advertising $s. However, this just feels completely out of proportion to earnings and downside does not seem priced in. Willing to be proved wrong of course, but especially seeing as they are non voting shares, I cannot understand this pricing.

FOMO. And the market is really frothy in general right now.

For some reason whenever people use the word "frothy" to describe something, I gag slightly.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#115
post #38

I don't understand how the existence of Snap adds over $30B of utility to the economy.

> I don't understand how the existence of [any company ever] adds over [their current valuation] of utility to the economy; furthermore, if [company] fell of the face of the earth, everyone would just switch to [their competitor], and life would resume ut fit. Peter Thiel's quote should be updated: We wanted flying cars, instead we got 1̶4̶0̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶s [trivialization of product's value]. These comments su…

Furthermore, your comment is no defense of Snap Inc's valuation, either. In my humble opinion, "integrating ads and rich content into their core UX" and "an interesting perspective on live events" are not strong arguments for why a company should be worth $30B.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#116

This $27.8 billion dollar valuation tells me that somewhere along the line, my job and lifestyle have caused me to detach from a significant chunk of society. I've never used Snap or their platform. I don't even really know what the benefit of their service. I am curious if I'm in the minority or if there's lots of developers like me who aren't able to comprehend these valuations.

I've got really bad news for you, every month older you get the more likely you are to experience this. And the next thing you know you'll be tuning through available radio stations and find that you can't find a station with music you like on it :-) Just don't succumb to EOG[1] :-)

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bewKPi9gdT4

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#117
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So now we know that there is atleast some appetite for shares with no controlling interest and no indication of paying out a dividend any time soon. A current market cap of 30 Billion is a pretty darn big accomplishment! This is really disturbing. I don't know if its an indicator of too much money in the market, or just the fact that the market itself has expanded so much. Why would investors be OK with losing powe…

For the same reason 50% of the US didn't vote in the last election. Or employees don't demand to view board decks. Most investors are buying as a way to make money off of continued success. They don't want to control the business or make decisions, and even if they did, they don't want to invest enough to make a dent in the normal 1-share-1-vote sort of model. They're looking the company and hooking their accounts to…

I think you have an interesting point but I disagree with your analogy of a presidential election. The motivations for voting in a presidential election are not always financial (even though future policies could very well determine your own financial outlook..). I think you're right about investors are in it for the returns but having control can help steer your returns. If everybody thinks the CEO is not increasing shareholder value, you vote to remove said CEO. This is not always positive either as many investors want quick returns and not always have patience for visionaries..

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#118

This $27.8 billion dollar valuation tells me that somewhere along the line, my job and lifestyle have caused me to detach from a significant chunk of society. I've never used Snap or their platform. I don't even really know what the benefit of their service. I am curious if I'm in the minority or if there's lots of developers like me who aren't able to comprehend these valuations.

I started using Snapchat after they added their dynamic filters. My kids, aged 2-7, think it's hilarious to have their faces warped or overlaid with funny images. My wife and I mostly take videos of them giggling while their face has puppy ears and then send it to each other and/or their grandparents.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#119
post #84

The SNAP thesis I like the best is - "Twitter-like growth with FB ARPU". The monetization potential of this company is massive (geofilters, sponsored content, hardware with spectacles, etc.) and there's no direct comp for that. Pokemon Go showed us the bleeding of digital to physical, and Snap has the potential to be the first company to unlock value from it (ex. geofilters). Plus you can view SNAP as a call option o…

I don't buy that sponsored content or hardware are that exciting in terms of monetization potential. Geofilters are interesting new ad product, but as an ad product they are not really that exciting as you lose virality(ephemeral) and sharing. They are limited to your immediate social network.

>it's actually been in international markets primarily

I'd like to know where you read this. I'd still be concerned because they've pretty much saturated the millenial market at this point. They need to grow in other demographics or internationally.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my job and lifestyle have caused me to detach from a significant chunk of society Yeah, the 13-21-year-old chunk of society. Do you, as a Linux Kernel Developer, happen to be within that demographic? Even their IPO roadshow video (which I see has now been removed) talks about their "13-34-year-old" user base, and then emphasizes the far higher levels of engagement and far higher potential among the lower half of th…

Sure the bulk of their users are young, but several of the people I follow are betweeen 28 and 45. It's not like Snapchat is an esoteric thing. Using it can be a function of how outgoing and expressive you are. Or if you have some purpose. The same reason you post on Hacker News is why people post on Snapchat -- to interact with others.

Posting on HN (or reddit, or...) will never die, because you get to correct people who are wrong on the internet. Snap not so much...
Post reply on HN