Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss • Hacker News Board

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#61

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:16 PM UTC

thejosh wrote: post #4

chucknelson wrote: post #2

I'm surprised investors aren't more scared of the competition, particularly Microsoft and its Teams product that is part of Office 365. Maybe it's not a huge deal because the overlap of Slack customers and Office 365 customers isn't that big?

If they can fix teams so everybody who uses it doesn't hate it, I'm sure they'll absolutely dominate.

It’s basically the definition of enterprise software that the people who buy it aren’t the people who use it. The bean counters don’t care whether the users hate the software.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#62

Post by bdcravens » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:17 PM UTC

w8rbt wrote: post #54

squeaky-clean wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't sound that different from Gmail to me.

Gmail was not the first email program (which is what the OP asked about). Gmail came several decades after email was invented and already in widespread use. You may or may not realize this fact (depending on your age).

Slack wasn't the first chat application either. The fact that it's a value add atop IRC is irrelevant, as Gmail is a value add atop IMAP.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#63

Post by judge2020 » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:17 PM UTC

swarnie_ wrote: post #51

mattmanser wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might say the same about ICQ, Skype, Messenger, etc. All communications platforms so far have come and gone in vogue. I remember in 2005 when everyone in our office communicated over MS Messenger. Maybe Slack is to instant messaging as Facebook was to social networking and will get some longevity. But it's too early to tell yet.

I use Skype daily and have never had a problem with it, I've never understood the hate if i'm honest.

At least a few years ago, I remember the bigger issues were:

- no message history past a few months

- the redesign made it look like a phone messaging app

- poor group chat functionality that didn't have anything beyond basic permissions

- calls were peer-to-peer for the longest time, making it mostly trivial to get someone's residential IP and DDOS their network.

It might have improved since then (I know calls are no longer P2P) but that's why a large portion of the gamers moved to Discord.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#64

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:17 PM UTC

danenania wrote: post #52

mytailorisrich wrote: post #15

Leaving aside the costs of their listing and related compensation (which are crazy high!) they made a $57m loss on $145m in revenue. Considering that they are a pure software company this is quite shocking and, to me, a sign not to touch them with a barge pole.

A business that’s doing great can have numbers that look like this if they’re investing heavily in growth. In that case, they’re losing money deliberately—if they wanted to, they could optimize for profits and be making money, but at the cost of growing slower and presumably sacrificing greater profits in the future. If you’re a shareholder, you probably don’t want that. I don’t know whether Slack is in this position…

That’s always the excuse. It’s an outlier when it happens.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#65

Post by d--b » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:18 PM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #10

Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s chief executive, said in an interview that it would take time for the market to understand his company since it had created a new category of software, unlike soda or cars We've had public business software companies for decades, they all created a new "category" of software, why does he think his is something new? Fundamentally speaking, how is Slack any different to the first email prog…

> it would take time for the market to understand his company

Perhaps, and also perhaps when they do, it won't be so valuable anymore...

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#66

Post by nkohari » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:18 PM UTC

mytailorisrich wrote: post #34

dpflan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What revenue and loss numbers (relative %s) would not shock you?

Anything less than a profit would shock me.

Nowadays, it's very rare for a software company to be profitable when they IPO.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#67

Post by teddyuk » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:18 PM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #57

tantalor wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it had created a new category of software Let's check that timeline of team chat apps... 2006 - Campfire launches (now part of Basecamp) 2010 - Hipchat launches 2013 - Slack launches

1980 - usenet launches

a few million years bc - one dinosaur grunts to another

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#68

Post by mosselman » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:20 PM UTC

swarnie_ wrote: post #51

mattmanser wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might say the same about ICQ, Skype, Messenger, etc. All communications platforms so far have come and gone in vogue. I remember in 2005 when everyone in our office communicated over MS Messenger. Maybe Slack is to instant messaging as Facebook was to social networking and will get some longevity. But it's too early to tell yet.

I use Skype daily and have never had a problem with it, I've never understood the hate if i'm honest.

The Skype of today is crap compared to the first Skype I used and loved. It is completely unclear what it tries to be now and the interface is horrible.

I have an unlimited-Europe plan with it and a phone number attached to it, but I'd rather use something else some day. I haven't found any cheaper alternatives though. Maybe someone here can point one out to me.

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#69

Post by judge2020 » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:23 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #35

kwerk wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m out of the loop. What’s happening with Patreon?

They got a big pushback after deciding that they (wrongly) thought that they were a content provider platform and not a payment platform and started banning users with political views they didn't like.

I think this is what you're referring to[0]; it only happened because Visa, MC, and Paypal can dangle their source of revenue over their heads any time they want something changed or a creator removed.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17432801

Re: Slack’s Shares Plunge After It Predicts a Larger Loss

#70

Post by sha666sum » Thu, Sep 05, 2019, 2:23 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #31

Slack is overrated and over priced. Its not like messenger platforms are difficult. We have had msn messneger, yahoo messenger, whatsapp, rocketchat, facebook messneger, messenger, gchat, skype. Slack doesn't do anything particularly special.

MSN Messenger with Pidgin as the client is the best IM experience I've ever had, at least for one to one conversations. There's also something to be said for identifying contacts by their email addresses, since even when the IM inevitably dies, you have a way to reach these people.