Live data from Hacker News

ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

reuters.com

31–40 of 204 posts

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#31
post #6

$50B seems too low for TikTok. It could be atleast as big as Facebook in the next five years. $200B min if investors are serious.

Could it get to $200B? Maybe. Is it worth that today? Absolutely not – way too much risk.

Something better could come along from an existing or new competitor, the ad platform may not come together, interest could decline when lifestyles change, they could try a bold new idea that doesn't work out or make other mistakes, etc.

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#32
post #15
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snapchat monetization strategies? It's easier to be fresh if you don't need to make a buck from ad sales

Snapchat does sell ads. They are features stories, and also sometimes shown between stories

Stories which sole purpose is to advertise stuff...

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#33
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apps are easy to install... and easy to uninstall. Where's Snapchat these days? What about Vine? What about tumblr? These companies make apps to try to monetize a community, but communities are fickle and easy to scare off. If I were an investor, I'd value these apps for the computers in their offices and the code their developers write and that's it. Maybe $100mil if you get me on a good day. You can't value them fo…

Snapchat is growing revenue at over 30% a year. Vine was bought by Twitter and shut down. Tumblr was bought by Yahoo and suffered the same fate as everything Yahoo buys.

tumblr was doing fine till it banned adult content :(

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#34
50B would be a steal imo. Don't get me wrong, this is still the early days for TikTok, but as a platform, TikTok seems way more compelling and interesting than Instagram at this point. Especially for younger people who are tired of the social behavior that's formed on IG. Even though the user base is primarily younger folks, they're doing a good job of aging up too. Core product value is way easier to deliver than Snap for older people.

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#35
These ppl who say tech is a bubble need to give it a rest. They have been saying since 2009 that Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, Uber, AirBNB, Instagram, etc. are a bubble, and have wrong ever since as valuations keep rising. The pandemic has only made apps more valuable, due to physical stores being closed and unemployed people having more free time to use apps. They, these bubble forecasters, were only right in the 80s (video game and PC bubble) and late 90s (dotcom and communications bubble) but this time really is different. A reason is, an individual's daily time on social media and apps can be divided into arbitrarily tiny slices or overlapping slices, so this allows many huge companies to make money, as opposed to the finite constraints of hardware companies faced in the past (you cannot spend an hour simultaneously playing on a Sony, Sega and Nintendo system; you have to choose one or split it up). So imagine if someone has 1 hour/day uninterrupted to spend on apps and social networking, so this can be at home, or during lunch, etc. A person who uses that hour on multiple social networks and apps gets exposed to each network/app's ads, so now rather than seeing only an Instagram ad or Facebook ad, now sees a TikTk ad, a Snapchat ad, etc. Many people keep 5+ social networks open at once and get exposed to all their respective ads. It is sorta like watching TV and listening to the radio at the same time and getting both the TV and radio ads.

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#36
post #14

Many are suggesting that TikTok would be overvalued at $50B. If that's the case, do you believe FB is overvalued at $662B? Instagram, as of 2018, was estimated to be worth around $100B on its own (with about 1b MAUs, versus TikTok's 800m). TikTok seems at least equally addictive, and its algorithm does a fantastic job at quickly showing good content that matches your interests.

Apps are easy to install... and easy to uninstall. Where's Snapchat these days? What about Vine? What about tumblr? These companies make apps to try to monetize a community, but communities are fickle and easy to scare off. If I were an investor, I'd value these apps for the computers in their offices and the code their developers write and that's it. Maybe $100mil if you get me on a good day. You can't value them fo…

I definitely empathize with your position on this, and you're right that community is the valuable part, hence the focus around active users.

What makes TikTok unique beyond growing like wildfire: their monetization strategy will be easier (the social aspect leads to relevant advertising), and their community is more stable!

The stable community is driven in part by their algorithms, which replace Instagram and Facebook's idea of a feed of those you follow. It gives more power to TikTok, in that you won't notice if some members of the community leave, and they can continue showing you content you'll enjoy from millions of other users.

To run through the list of companies you mentioned:

(1) Snapchat has a solid userbase that's likely to stay with it, and they're worth over $30b. They aren't profitable, but they chose that path when they focused on Spectacles above monetization, and paid engineers more than Google. A $50b valuation wouldn't be unheard of if they had 2x time-on-app as TikTok does.

(2) Vine had hundreds of millions of active users when it was shut down by Twitter.

(3) Tumblr is unique; they cut their own head off when they started removing content. They were always a niche service, without the mainstream appeal and without the ability to target their users with relevant advertising.

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#37
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's going to be bigger. I know most people dont use snap but they use tiktok. Everyone young uses tiktok. It's much bigger than snap could have ever hoped. TikTok is FAANG tier company. If I were the founder, I'd go the Chinese government and ask them to ban Tesla and put tariff on Apple in retaliation. Tell the U.S. to play free market like they claim. Or lost access for it's companies. TikTok deserves it's suc…

> Everyone young uses tiktok. It's much bigger than snap could have ever hoped. Interestingly, you'd think that, but it's dead wrong. I'd say about a quarter of people actually use tick tock, compared to almost all using instagram or snap chat. There's a "subculture" of people that use it and are massively active, and most others don't use it at all. This strikes me as a massive impediment to tick tock's growth in Am…

> Interestingly, you'd think that, but it's dead wrong. I'd say about a quarter of people actually use tick tock, compared to almost all using instagram or snap chat.

They said everybody young uses tiktok. While that's obviously an exaggeration it currently is the number 1 most downloaded app on iOS and Android by quite a long way.

It's only 300M behind the all time number of Instagram downloads on all platforms (1.8B vs 1.5B) and is growing at 4x the rate of Instagram.

https://mediakix.com/blog/top-tik-tok-statistics-demographic...

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#38
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really doubt Tiktok's founder has that sort of leverage/power over the Chinese government. The current Chinese regime makes rational decisions, I doubt they'll think banning Tesla and Apple in order to protect Tiktok is worth it from a cost/value ratio point of view. Huawei is way more valuable to the Chinese government, and they didn't ban US companies in retaliation either.

TikTok will serve the purpose to Chinese government that Hollywood served for America's elite. It's worth every penny for softpower.

Nah there is a quite huge gap between Douyin (Chinese Tiktok) and Tiktok itself. I once out of curiosity browsed Douyin. Peculiarly, they are rather hostile with attempts to bring TikTok trends into their platform, and they showed their contempt quite clearly.

Side note: Douyin features are way ahead of TikTok. e.g. https://youtu.be/yyeO7EUciIQ

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#39
post #3
post #2

$50B for TikTok sounds a lot. I am wondering how they want to keep TikTok attractive for the audience. Would it hit a similar fate as Snap?

What fate are you referring to with Snapchat? I’m pretty close to the target audience for both Snapchat and TikTok and nearly everyone I know (edit: close to my age) uses both.

What is the age group they target? I am not 40 and don’t know a single person with snap anymore. None of my kids or their friends so is it like 15-25 year olds or who uses snap now days? Thanks

Re: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid

#40
$50B sounds realistic.

Snapchat is a $33B company, with 30% yearly revenue growth and similar demographics to TikTok.

TikTok has a lot more active users than Snapchat and is growing much faster. It's the only non-FB app in the global top 5. That alone makes it an attractive investment as a hedge.

Take a look at the stats: https://mediakix.com/blog/top-tik-tok-statistics-demographic...

Post reply on HN