Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook saw the "we're saturating the number of people on the Internet" wall years ago. That's why they zero-rate the app, and integrated SMS notifications and had J2ME and SIM apps.
They also have a "free basics" program which partners with networks (I think primarily developing countries) and gives people access to Facebook with no network/bandwidth costs. Seems like a win-win? https://developers.facebook.com/docs/internet-org
Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
131–140 of 294 posts
Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is not hate and you may well be right about the scale and reach of facebook right now. However, I think many people over-estimate the real utility of Facebook. That is, lives would not materially change for the better or worse if facebook fell off the face of the internet tomorrow, imo. Emotional reactions aside, Gajendra from Nepal and Tom from California would continue with life as they did before Facebook was a…
I really do think that broad, sweeping statements like that can't be used so liberally for a product that billions of people use in so many different ways . The way we use Facebook here in America is not the same as the way people use Facebook in Thailand (in fact, it's extremely different). The way a college student uses Facebook is not the same as the way a mid 30s male uses Facebook. I'll give you one data point.…
Agree and upvoted. That said, sweeping statements can be useful if they point to a trend. In mature markets, there does appear to be a segment that is turned off by FB and it's not clear if these are being replaced by newer users. If that pattern repeats in newer markets then as the user base ages it portends to trouble for FB.
Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also have a "free basics" program which partners with networks (I think primarily developing countries) and gives people access to Facebook with no network/bandwidth costs. Seems like a win-win? https://developers.facebook.com/docs/internet-org
Um no. https://qz.com/612159/why-trai-backed-net-neutrality-and-kil...
That's just in India where Free Basics doesn't exist. Facebook Free Basics is absolutely live and in use in 62 other countries:
Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Um no. https://qz.com/612159/why-trai-backed-net-neutrality-and-kil...
That's just in India where Free Basics doesn't exist. Facebook Free Basics is absolutely live and in use in 62 other countries: https://info.internet.org/en/story/where-weve-launched/
I wasn't suggesting it's failing. The point I was replying to was if Free Basics is a "win-win" and I'm saying there's at least one large democratic nation that thought otherwise.
Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
#135This is one of the ugliest financial statements I've ever seen. The multi-billion dollar loss is due mostly to stock compensation, but still their COGS or cost of revenues sold was greater than their revenues. That's probably the first time that's been seen for a sizable software company in the history of the industry. They said their revenue per DAU is $.90 and their server costs per DAU were $.60...so that means se…
"server costs" (Google Cloud) is an affordable $450 million per year commitment.
They apparently have 2,360 employees doing who knows what (not growing the user base).
My favorite part:
"Spiegel laughed out loud when asked if he was worried about Facebook copying his features. “Just because Yahoo has a search box doesn’t mean they’re Google.""
We'll check back in a year to see if he feels the same way.
Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also have a "free basics" program which partners with networks (I think primarily developing countries) and gives people access to Facebook with no network/bandwidth costs. Seems like a win-win? https://developers.facebook.com/docs/internet-org
Um no. https://qz.com/612159/why-trai-backed-net-neutrality-and-kil...
Gotcha. I'm not sure it's a win-win, but it feels crazy to say that giving 0 free sites is better than giving Facebook free. It's a level playing field, sure, but consumers are worse off than if they had free access to Facebook.
In my opinion, opportunity is better than equality.
Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
#137Some quick highlights as to why the stock is being punished. > Adjusted Ebitda Loss $188.2M, Est. Loss $176.9M > 1Q Daily Active Users 166M, Est. 168M > 1Q Rev. $149.6M, Est. $158.6M > 1Q Loss/Shr $2.31 I'm guessing the big issue is the miss on Daily active users. This is the same thing that caused the street ot hammer twitter. Rule of thumb for non profitable tech companies.... If you are a company that isn't making…
Sluggish user growth probably doesn't look much better when Facebook's overt effort to clone their product seems to be working. Instagram Stories alone already outpaces Snap 200M to 166M. Looks like an uphill battle from here. http://www.thefader.com/2017/04/14/instagram-stories-more-po...
Just out of curiosity, what kinds of things can a startup do to avoid being copied and killed out of the gate by Facebook? Poison pill? Patent?
Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
#138User growth is plummeting: Q4'15 - 13.8% Q1'16 - 14% Q2'16 - 17.2% Q3'16 - 7% Q4'16 - 3.2% Instagram Stories launched Q3'16. Going forward, growth is going to be flat, maybe even negative, now that every messenger service now has their own Stories clone.
While a very small market segment but I've noticed that my user demographic's snap story usage has been in rapid decline. The people whom I saw using snap stories the majority of time, have since cut their usage in half if not completely and switched to Instagram stories. Going to be very interesting to see how they handle user growth & user engagement.
Yeah I see the problem as double-edged:
1) Teenage users, their bread and butter, are leaking out to Instagram
2) Older users, their growth market, are being "stolen" by the various messaging apps that they're already on (plus Instagram)
So now they have to simultaneously fend off Instagram draining their primary userbase, while also competing with all the popular messenger apps cloning their main product feature.
The latter is going to be just as difficult as the former. Overseas, WhatsApp (Europe), and WeChat and Line (Asia) are going to seize whatever int'l growth they were hoping to grab. In the US, chances are that if Stories catches-on with the older crowd, it'll be through either Instagram or the various messenger apps they're already on.
During the IPO roadshow, SNAP was trying to position itself as a media/entertainment company, but media companies will follow the audience, and it's hard to see them sticking it out with SNAP if viewership numbers falter.
Hard to see how they claw their way out of this. The comparisons to FB are poor IMO because they at least strong MAU growth going for it and no real viable competitors with an alternative product. Even the comparisons to Twitter are flawed. The doubly whammy of decline growth + decline revenue per user is creating the perfect storm for SNAP.
Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
#139why is net loss tagged as "not meaningful"?
The percentage change is "not meaningful": net income increased by 2100%! (non_sequitur commented on that point a few minutes before you asked, by the way)
And the change is "not meaningful" because it includes a one time charge for stock compensation issued as part of the IPO.
Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know anything about this overall, but I have some interesting anecdotes that show the power of Facebook around the world. I've done some pretty substantial traveling throughout Asia, and just about everyone with a smartphone that I've met also has a Facebook account (excluding China). In Myanmar (aka Burma) the strict military government restricted internet usage until they turned over control of the governme…
> I explained what Google can help with: searching for information, reading news, etc. He showed me that he read news and did searches for things all from within the Facebook app. This is the most frightening thing I've read in a while.
I can only imagine being frightened by this if I held a large stake in Google. Do you have a different reason?