Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results • Hacker News Board

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#131

Post by econner » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 5:17 AM UTC

whathaschanged wrote: post #64

Everybody talks about the advantages of immediate cashflow, while always ignoring these outcomes. What did going public allow the company to do that it was unable to do prior to selling out? Did they just need the money to keep paying for bandwidth? Because that's the essence of the 1990s dot com game, with private venture capital being replaced by wall street investment firms. Unreasonable demands for 'projected gro…

I dunno there's something to be said about becoming a real company with reporting deadlines instead of living perpetually in private valuation fantasy land.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#132

Post by aylmao » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 5:20 AM UTC

liquidise wrote: post #21

> Hosting costs per DAU were $0.68 in Q3 2017 as compared to $0.64 in Q3 2016 and $0.61 in Q2 2017. Those are staggering figures to me and the trend is equally surprising. Maybe it's ignorance about hosting costs at such a scale, but i feel like cost/DAU should be declining over time, right? Is there something i'm missing here?

Probably new features. The new 3D filters look like they could require more resources to serve (filters are not included in the app but rather downloaded dynamically iirc). Maybe they're rolling out more localized filters too.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#133

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 5:21 AM UTC

minikomi wrote: post #83

perchard wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a spectacular failure

Are you speculating or have you seen this clearly? Personally, any way you frame it, it comes down to a lack of focus; failing to act before the lens of public opinion shifted.

[deleted]

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#134

Post by ggg9990 » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 5:24 AM UTC

zitterbewegung wrote: post #122

azinman2 wrote: post #69

“Excess inventory and related charges – In Q3 2017, we recorded $39.9 million of charges related to Spectacles inventory, primarily related to excess inventory reserves and inventory purchase commitment cancellation charges.“ Looks like spectacles was a failure.

I never saw anyone on the street with Spectacles and that signals to me it is a failure. I find this rule works for portable consumer electronics.

One place that heuristic fails is for kids technology. Parents will buy almost anything that they think either benefits their kid or makes parenting easier.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#135

Post by aylmao » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 5:25 AM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #73

mrkurt wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the simpler explanation is: a social media monopoly replicated a smaller competitor's best features and let their dominance do the rest. Let's not pretend it's possible to compete with Facebook on a level playing field.

Facebook recreated snapchat mere months after it launched with an app called Poke. It was literally the exact same app, but people didn't use it. It's more than just recreating the best feature.

I mean, yeah. A lot of startups could replicate Snapchat in that sense.

It's the market dominance that really did it. Instagram already had the attention, brand, and network.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#136

Post by aylmao » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 5:39 AM UTC

dingo_bat wrote: post #113

lobf wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think that would signal a healthy company?

Yes, I think concentrating efforts on the most profitable segment of your users may be better than diluting the experience for everybody.

That's your opinion from your vantage point. How do you know iOS is most profitable? For all we know, most of their users, or maybe most of their growth potential could be on Android. Lets not forget international markets run mostly Android.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#137

Post by cstejerean » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 5:42 AM UTC

jjcm wrote: post #119

kalessin wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost is definitely bandwidth, Snapchat doesn't have much of a storage problem as snaps have an actual TTL.

Assuming half of it is bandwidth costs, that means that a daily active user is using ~380 MB/day (assuming $0.01/GB). That seems pretty hefty as an average. Especially if you consider the encoding snapchat uses puts each 10s video at about 1MB in size. 380MB is a little over an hour of snapchat quality video, that seems excessive as an average. If I were a major stockholder I'd be pushing to see why these hosting cos…

I think that’s $0.60 per quarter not per day. 380MB for the quarter per daily active user doesn’t seem that unreasonable.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#138

Post by jsemrau » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 5:55 AM UTC

rock_hard wrote: post #88

lefstathiou wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am fascinated by Facebook. It is one of the most valuable companies in the world but if you took it away from me (and I would argue most people) tomorrow morning it would have almost no impact on our day to day lives. I actively use it and my girlfriend is obsessed with Instagram but if she didnt have it she would just go back to reading blogs on Tumblr or wherever. I would hate to live in a world without Google or…

I personally couldn’t disagree more. If you cut me off tomorrow of Facebook and Messeneger I would instantly loose contact to the majority of people I care about (except my wife and parents). I would end up spending life on my couch watching Netflix instead of engaging in a rich social life I have now thanks to FB events, groups, Messeneger, etc. And I guarantee you that’s true for a large amount of the user base! Ot…

That sounds really sad, to be honest. Where are you living that you can't have face to face interactions on a regular basis.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#139

Post by base698 » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 6:08 AM UTC

rgbrenner wrote: post #28

liquidise wrote: post #21

> Hosting costs per DAU were $0.68 in Q3 2017 as compared to $0.64 in Q3 2016 and $0.61 in Q2 2017. Those are staggering figures to me and the trend is equally surprising. Maybe it's ignorance about hosting costs at such a scale, but i feel like cost/DAU should be declining over time, right? Is there something i'm missing here?

They have to receive the picture, then send it to a number of other users. So it's probably mostly bandwidth charges. They use Google, right? When was the last time Google (or any of the cloud providers) lowered their bandwidth charges? That small fluctuation is probably just minor variations in usage.

Could also be incompetence in regards to managing servers and load testing with laziness for not shutting down instances and ignorance of using reserved instances?

Ahem, I mean it could be.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#140

Post by mhluongo » Wed, Nov 08, 2017, 6:11 AM UTC

base698 wrote: post #139

rgbrenner wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have to receive the picture, then send it to a number of other users. So it's probably mostly bandwidth charges. They use Google, right? When was the last time Google (or any of the cloud providers) lowered their bandwidth charges? That small fluctuation is probably just minor variations in usage.

Could also be incompetence in regards to managing servers and load testing with laziness for not shutting down instances and ignorance of using reserved instances? Ahem, I mean it could be.

Google Cloud does reserve instances automatically...