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Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

investor.snap.com

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Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#181

Post by speedplane »

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…

The cynic would say the private shareholders saw the sinking ship, and wanted to liquidate their stock while they could.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#182

Post by speedplane »

econner wrote: post #131
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.

Why would it be better to be a "real" company that has to make a profit, than one that gets endless investment and gets to live in fantasy land?

The only reason is that the "endless investment" dried up.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#183

Post by speedplane »

scurvy wrote: post #128
spyspy wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most expensive Not really. Like any hosting platform, if you know how to tune it properly costs can be kept low. We cut our infra costs in half moving to GAE. YMMV.

They're already in Google Cloud. One could argue that's preventing them from keeping costs low. Google Cloud is tremendously expensive in op-ex at Snap's scale. You're paying Google instead of having a good ops team(s). Dropbox did the math and found they could do better on their own. Only time will tell who is right.

I use Google Cloud. Love it's simplicity and design.

It's definitely cheaper on the lower to even medium end. But once you're spending six figures per month, it's probably only ~10% cheaper than buying the equipment and hiring three people to manage it. Not sure why anyone would be on Google Cloud (or any cloud really) and spend 7 figures a month, unless you got a sweet deal from them.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#184

Post by speedplane »

spyspy wrote: post #45
jondubois wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- They lost $3 Billion in 9 months. - For every $6 they spent, they got back $1 in revenue. - The product is an app which is free to use. - A large chunk of their system runs on Google App Engine; which is probably the most expensive and highest lock-in infrastructure solution that you could possibly use. - The CEO, who was basically fresh out of university, turned down a $4 Billion offer buy the company. So basicall…

> most expensive Not really. Like any hosting platform, if you know how to tune it properly costs can be kept low. We cut our infra costs in half moving to GAE. YMMV.

I'll also add that they've come quite a way making it more modular. It's clear GAE will eventually become more a collection of parts rather than a locked-in stack.

You can already run GAE in a Docker container using app engine flexible.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#185

Post by xchaotic »

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.

spectacular failure

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#186

Post by abalos »

dsacco wrote: post #74
RandallBrown wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And then Facebook tried again last year and succeeded with Instagram Stories, passing SnapChat in users as of August: https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/02/instagram-stories-annivers...

As much as it pains me to say it, I stopped using Snapchat because my experience with Instagram Stories + Messaging in Instagram is simply better. Especially on Android.

The Snapchat Android app is completely garbage. :|

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#187

Post by wastedhours »

jsemrau wrote: post #138
rock_hard wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Adding passing acquaintances on Facebook has actually made them developing into real friends more likely by my anecdotal reckoning, as they're at the top of mind my when I see their updates and I remember to check in.

And my partner being friends with my mum on there has actually helped both out with subsequent interactions as they know more about their common ground.

Facebook, ultimately, is what you make it. There's loads of "racist uncles", "fake news", "Tasty videos" etc, but if you engage with the people, it's as powerful as ever.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#188

Post by drchickensalad »

speedplane wrote: post #183
scurvy wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're already in Google Cloud. One could argue that's preventing them from keeping costs low. Google Cloud is tremendously expensive in op-ex at Snap's scale. You're paying Google instead of having a good ops team(s). Dropbox did the math and found they could do better on their own. Only time will tell who is right.

I use Google Cloud. Love it's simplicity and design. It's definitely cheaper on the lower to even medium end. But once you're spending six figures per month, it's probably only ~10% cheaper than buying the equipment and hiring three people to manage it. Not sure why anyone would be on Google Cloud (or any cloud really) and spend 7 figures a month, unless you got a sweet deal from them.

Not for a very bandwidth-focused business like snap.

Re: Snap Inc. Third Quarter 2017 Results

#189

Post by tim333 »

mizzao wrote: post #143
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?

Snap is paying Google $400m a year for hosting costs... https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/02/snap-commits-2-billion-ove... Seems like at that point it might be cheaper to run your own datacenters?

I'm puzzled by that - if it's $400m/yr then cost per user should go down as you have more but they seem to be reporting the opposite. ("Hosting costs per DAU were $0.68 in Q3 2017 as compared to $0.64 in Q3 2016")
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