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Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

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Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#151

Post by majani »

atbentley wrote: post #130
thedarkginger wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

> According to the report, Instagram Stories has more than 200 million users per day, with that number being measured by people updating their story or watching a friend's. I wonder what the number would be if those who only watched stories were excluded. Its also worth considering that Instagram delivers some of their announcements as stories and whether or not people viewing those also count towards the active user…

Registered lurkers still count as active users. As a matter of fact, social media follows the 80:20 rule when it comes to steady content creation

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#152

Post by narrowrail »

self-diversity wrote: post #140
trevyn wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

This is such a crappy suggestion: That we are all just acting in our own self-interest. I'm privileged enough that this is not the case, and I despise the implication. It's like voting for Trump just because of the huge tax cut I will get. Not everyone thinks this way.

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#153

Post by mcphilip »

tuna-piano wrote: post #93
ac29 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Facebook has 18 percent increase year over year. They have ~2B users. That's nearly 2/3 of people on the planet with Internet connections, according to estimates by the ITU (approx 3B internet users by the end of 2016) [0]. Even if I believed that user figure, which I dont, there is no way Facebook can grow at the same rate for much longer. [0] http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFa...

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…

Buzzfeed has some surprisingly good long form pieces. A recent one discusses in detail what's going on in Myanmar[1]. I found it interesting, but depressing.

The cesspool of fake news, Trump gossip, etc, turning into hot topics amongst Myanmar's budding online culture is sad, like a virus spreading.

Another worrisome side effect is the quick adoption of the medium by hate groups inciting violence towards religious minorities with outright lies compounded by the fact that most Myanmar users don't yet know fact checking is possible thanks to the walled garden.

Some users have landed in jail for not realizing posts containing jests about government officials were viewable by said authorities. The country's speech laws are still evolving and users struggle to understand brand new ceoncepts like scoping of comments.

Interesting times...

[1]. https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/fake-news-spreads-tru...

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#154

Post by rjeli »

atbentley wrote: post #130
thedarkginger wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

> According to the report, Instagram Stories has more than 200 million users per day, with that number being measured by people updating their story or watching a friend's. I wonder what the number would be if those who only watched stories were excluded. Its also worth considering that Instagram delivers some of their announcements as stories and whether or not people viewing those also count towards the active user…

This is very important. I watch Instagram and Snapchat stories every day. Instagram is 2 or 3 celebrity stories, then I scroll down to look at a few new pics. Snapchat is a constant stream of glimpses into the lives of my close friends.

edit: I'm curious if this is true only for my friend groups/demographic/principal component, poll here: http://www.strawpoll.me/12939274

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#155

Post by draw_down »

ithinkinstereo wrote: post #11

User 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.

Whoa, that's bad.

I personally don't see how it keeps going in the face of Instagram, though their filters are pretty cool. Instagram could copy that too of course, but it wouldn't have the same whimsy that Snapchat brings to the feature.

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#156

Post by Guyag »

atbentley wrote: post #130
thedarkginger wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

> According to the report, Instagram Stories has more than 200 million users per day, with that number being measured by people updating their story or watching a friend's. I wonder what the number would be if those who only watched stories were excluded. Its also worth considering that Instagram delivers some of their announcements as stories and whether or not people viewing those also count towards the active user…

I suspect it'd be pretty different. Stories are right at the top when you open the app and are used by quite a few celebs - that must inflate the numbers a lot.

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#157

Post by cynicalkane »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #111

[Net Loss] primarily due to the recognition of expense related to RSUs with a performance condition satisfied on the effectiveness of the registration statement for our initial public offering. This reads like they gave out $2 BILLION in RSU's that vested if the company went public. That is a pretty sweet payday. EDIT: It is a sweet payday unless you can't sell the stock to pay the taxes owed right away. Then if SNAP…

Snapchat was known for its unusual RSUs--they would evaporate in a set amount of time unless a liquidity event happened. Apparently, if there's what the IRS considers a substantial risk of loss, they're considered unvested and you don't have to pay taxes on them. It looks to me like the situation worked the same on the accounting side of things.

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#158

Post by majani »

EGreg wrote: post #137
thedarkginger wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I'll indulge. When Facebook seriously have you in their sights, financially, the smart move is what Snap did: rush for IPO before your numbers start getting affected. Product-wise it appears that if Facebook make a billion dollar offer, accepting it is a wise choice to maximise usage growth and interaction.

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#159

Post by elefanten »

us0r wrote: post #135
theprop wrote: post #59

This 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.

Also, Yahoo had the search box before Google. So, his analogy is actually perfect: Facebook will wreck him.

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#160

Post by ryanmerket »

evan_ wrote: post #106
exogeny wrote: post #26

So, let me get this straight: they expect to able to be a viable advertising outlet for brands, despite having no demographic targeting besides a rough guess at geolocation? Hey, cool. Good thing you're paying Google and Amazon about $200 million a year while your user growth plateaus!

They can analyze which stories you look at and subscribe to, which branded lenses/stickers you use, and I'd be surprised if they weren't using facial recognition to analyze selfies to look for age/gender/etc data

None of which brands buy on.
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