Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results • Hacker News Board

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#291

Post by skinnymuch » Fri, May 12, 2017, 2:53 PM UTC

monkmartinez wrote: post #105

askafriend wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're severely underestimating the scale and reach of Facebook. There's a reason it's a ~450B company. It really does have that many users. Even if a solid 20% of them are all fake accounts (which I don't think the percentage is that high), it's still a large part of the connected world. There's a reason Facebook is developing technology to bring the rest of the unconnected world online. It's because they kn…

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…

You could make that argument for any web or tech company.

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#292

Post by skinnymuch » Fri, May 12, 2017, 2:54 PM UTC

nihonde wrote: post #79

tlogan wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not think that investors are concern about net loss - at least I'm not. I'm disappointed by anemic growth: Facebook has 18 percent increase year over year. They have ~2B users [1] This q Snapchat had growth of ~5% which will be about ~20% per year. But they are 10x smaller than Facebook. [1] Facebook 5/3/17 earning report

I keep trying to tell people that Snap can't grow to targets unless it opens Asia, and no one in Japan (at least in my first hand anecdotal experience) uses it or even knows what it is.

Isn't Snow being used in Asia? Might Snapchat be too late for Asia?

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#293

Post by adjkant » Sat, May 13, 2017, 1:27 AM UTC

ryanSrich wrote: post #253

rjeli wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This thread is very interesting for me. I've never used Snapchat before, and I deleted my Facebook years ago. However I do use Instagram daily. The caveat there is that I've never viewed or have taken a story. Video just feels very odd and antithetical to the reason I use the platform (which is to post outdoor photos). I guess if I could upload high quality video to a story I'd be more interested in it.

If you're worried about quality, you're missing the point. Stories as a concept work because they are informal glimpses into people.

Re: Snap Inc. Reports First Quarter 2017 Results

#294

Post by traviswingo » Wed, May 17, 2017, 3:10 PM UTC

skinnymuch wrote: post #287

traviswingo wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, though. I never understood why Groupon, Snap, etc. turn down these multi-billion dollar acquisition offers. It's not like these products/services have a huge impact on the world (if they were to disappear, who would really care?), take the money and run.

Instagram selling to FB is a potential mistake in hindsight. Even without FB's direct backing, IG was poised to grow like crazy. Probably could've IPOed or sold to FB or someone else for 10x or 15x 2 years later.

From what I've heard (don't quote me on this), I think Instagram was having serious financial difficulties at the time of the acquisition. The costs to run the service (media transfer and storage are a massive infrastructure cost) were astronomical. The Facebook buyout was almost the only way they'd stay alive without giving up a massive piece of the company in a funding round.