Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 369 posts

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#151

Post by da02 »

rubicon33 wrote: post #140
linuxkerneldev wrote: post #34

This $27.8 billion dollar valuation tells me that somewhere along the line, my job and lifestyle have caused me to detach from a significant chunk of society. I've never used Snap or their platform. I don't even really know what the benefit of their service. I am curious if I'm in the minority or if there's lots of developers like me who aren't able to comprehend these valuations.

You are not alone. I have been struck with amazement at the rise of apps like Snap, Twitter, and Instragram. They have captivated an entire generation, leaving me on the sideline. As a developer, I suppose I'm not the most social being on the planet, but it does concern me that I have become "detached" from everyone else. I spoke with an Uber driver the other day whos 14 year old son has 700,000 instragram followers…

How does he sell the advertising? Product placement in the photos?

(I'm not interested in advertising. I'm just curious.) I'm surprised by Target: Why not rotate their product lines and improve selection rather than just advertise to teens? Most of them would probably go to Walmart where it's cheaper.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#152

Post by donovanm »

zachgersh wrote: post #58

My favorite tweet about the whole situation: https://twitter.com/objective_neo/status/736530568222015489

The amount it's valued at seriously blows my mind. Like this is an app that's main features are sending 10 second videos and images.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#153

Post by rubicon33 »

da02 wrote: post #151
rubicon33 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not alone. I have been struck with amazement at the rise of apps like Snap, Twitter, and Instragram. They have captivated an entire generation, leaving me on the sideline. As a developer, I suppose I'm not the most social being on the planet, but it does concern me that I have become "detached" from everyone else. I spoke with an Uber driver the other day whos 14 year old son has 700,000 instragram followers…

How does he sell the advertising? Product placement in the photos? (I'm not interested in advertising. I'm just curious.) I'm surprised by Target: Why not rotate their product lines and improve selection rather than just advertise to teens? Most of them would probably go to Walmart where it's cheaper.

I'm not sure, I didn't get his username, and even if I did, I'm not on instagram.

I did ask how he does it though, and he said target sends him pictures to use. I was confused by that response because, I thought instagram was more about product placement (him hanging out with his friends, with target logo in the background).

TL;DR; - Not sure how it works.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#154

Post by MegaButts »

OJFord wrote: post #142
MegaButts wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes feel like nobody uses Google Hangouts anymore, which also integrates with SMS so you don't have to bother with multiple applications.

But they don't bundle SMS and 'HoIP' any more, and aren't they killing it in favour of Duo & Allo? But with ~~poor~~ no marketing, and no web UI...

You can use Hangouts for SMS and 'HoIP' still, but they made it a lot more difficult. I'm really not the target demographic for messaging applications, but I am baffled by how Google has handled Hangouts (which seemed to be incredibly popular and worked better 10 years ago - I'm avoiding the name changes over the years because I was able to use the same account continuously), Allo and Duo (I have never tried either and don't understand what they are trying to do).

It honestly feels like Google is actively trying to sabotage themselves for messaging. I just don't get it.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#155

Post by Apocryphon »

zachgersh wrote: post #58

My favorite tweet about the whole situation: https://twitter.com/objective_neo/status/736530568222015489

Maybe the future is in these over-glorified social media lifestyle companies acquiring or bailing out "worthy" startups working on "hard problems". Sort of like how ad-funded Google is investing in health longevity research and the like.

The future is going to be funded from the largesse of dumb app companies, because the public would rather fund dumb app companies than rocket ship firms.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#156

Post by econner »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #99
chollida1 wrote: post #13

I'm happy for the NYSE that this went well. SNAP has done some pretty large volume so far with no problems. Interestingly enough, well atleast to someone who cares about the cash equity markets, the NYSE actually did a test run last week to try and simulate the chaos that occurs during any hot IPO. So now we know that there is atleast some appetite for shares with no controlling interest and no indication of paying o…

They had a pretty large participating contribution (50M shares as I recall) so that is a bunch of money that paid off some folks who might have been skittish. I was surprised to see as large a bounce as there was. And it has no doubt realigned the world view of a bunch of Snapchat employees[1]. To your last point I can't imagine they are going to talk earnings in a GAAP context unless they are generating lots of free…

> They had a pretty large participating contribution (50M shares as I recall) so that is a bunch of money that paid off some folks who might have been skittish.

Could you explain what this means a little more? What is a participating contribution in this context? Are these shares employees were able to sell in the IPO?

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#157

Post by _audakel »

ehsankia wrote: post #122
missing8 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure the bulk of their users are young, but several of the people I follow are betweeen 28 and 45. It's not like Snapchat is an esoteric thing. Using it can be a function of how outgoing and expressive you are. Or if you have some purpose. The same reason you post on Hacker News is why people post on Snapchat -- to interact with others.

But do you think their actual sources of revenue (all the ads and paid stories) are focused towards older people? From what I've seen, it's mostly gossip and stories aimed towards younger people.

fb started out with younger ppl, and then gradually older ppl got on, tell now when like my feed is blown up by my grandma.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#158

Post by mi100hael »

Domenic_S wrote: post #120
missing8 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure the bulk of their users are young, but several of the people I follow are betweeen 28 and 45. It's not like Snapchat is an esoteric thing. Using it can be a function of how outgoing and expressive you are. Or if you have some purpose. The same reason you post on Hacker News is why people post on Snapchat -- to interact with others.

Posting on HN (or reddit, or...) will never die, because you get to correct people who are wrong on the internet. Snap not so much...

I don't think that's quite right. Snapchat does have a chat feature which allows you to essentially send feedback on peoples snaps/stories, so you could absolutely tell people they're wrong for making some statement.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#159

Post by kgwgk »

linuxkerneldev wrote: post #34

This $27.8 billion dollar valuation tells me that somewhere along the line, my job and lifestyle have caused me to detach from a significant chunk of society. I've never used Snap or their platform. I don't even really know what the benefit of their service. I am curious if I'm in the minority or if there's lots of developers like me who aren't able to comprehend these valuations.

Don't worry, most of the people buying today don't know what they are buying either...

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#160

Post by overcast »

zachgersh wrote: post #58

My favorite tweet about the whole situation: https://twitter.com/objective_neo/status/736530568222015489

That was my sentiment five years ago for Instagram.

9 Apr 2012

2008:Sun buys MySQL for $1B. 2012:Facebook buys Instagram for $1B. DB tech running half the web+revenue vs hipster photo filter app+no rev.

Post reply on HN