> 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?
More features = more resources.
You need a culture of cleaning up tech debt to reduce resource usage.
With so many holes in the ship, the company is going to be focused on features to drive up RPU.
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.
This is the first I've heard that Google Cloud is cheaper than doing it yourself. All of the conversations I've had (and some pricing I've seen) say otherwise. Do they actually give 85% discounts, because that's what it would take to make Google Cloud equal to the cost of running my business.
https://wolfstreet.com/2017/11/07/how-can-a-company-once-wor... Has a fairly bleak write up. It makes the point that if enriching the founders is the aim they are doing pretty well.
I love that sales projection that demonstrates some people are unaware that there are potential uptake numbers lower than 1% :D. > "Even if only 1% of people buy them we'll still profit!"
The people who made that projection are pretty aware. They are sales guys trying to push the stock.
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.
Replace street with other parents kids at daycare .
“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.
I did. I saw them in a lot of places. I live near SNAP (I've seen a matte black Mazaratti in my neighborhood with the licenseplate SNPCHT, or something like that) so maybe that's why. But I only ever saw them at techie events like GDC and around Santa Monica where all the tech companies are.
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.
I did. I saw them in a lot of places. I live near SNAP (I've seen a matte black Mazaratti in my neighborhood with the licenseplate SNPCHT, or something like that) so maybe that's why. But I only ever saw them at techie events like GDC and around Santa Monica where all the tech companies are.