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Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

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Re: Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

#161

Post by saretired »

capkutay wrote: post #38
boomzilla wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how will they make money? Selling ads in the AR world?

How do facebook and Google make money? Selling ads in social network and search land. Having an enormous, religiously active user base has proven time and time again to be a huge cash cow.

Google and Facebook capture user data across many dimensions, and so are able to present advertisers with highly targeted groups of prospects. I don't know if that's the case with Twitter or Snapchat. I would say that the more a site presents you with ads you have no interest in, the less likely it is that they have fine-grained profiles of their users (which is where the money is).

Re: Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

#162

Post by krapp »

taf2 wrote: post #158
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The engineering community is sleeping on Snapchat, but shouldn't be. My life is AR. I'm the CEO for an AR company, I speak write and live and breathe all things AR. Snapchat is poised to be the most important AR company around for several reasons. 1. They have a MASSIVE userbase that is comfortable with sharing their lives 2. That userbase has already shown an interest in AR - and yes whether you like it or not their…

Sorry... I tried googling this but what is AR?

Augmented Reality.

Re: Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

#163

Post by vit05 »

serg_chernata wrote: post #2

When a company like Uber is raising insane amounts of money I think to myself - "ok, they're working on vehicle automation and other ambitious projects, it makes sense". When a company like snapchat is looking for 4B in addition to existing funding I am left completely dumbfounded. Can someone please explain why they would need this much cash?

They will use that money to buy other startups. As they have done with the company that have created their glasses 2 years ago, the one that created lens etc.

Re: Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

#164

Post by giarc »

dilemma wrote: post #136
giarc wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've heard, if you are 13-25 with a smartphone, there's a good chance your primary source of communication is snapchat. And unlike other platforms (WeChat, WhatsApp), snapchat has a content delivery mechanism. So not only do friends connect with friends, but they also connect with businesses, celebrities etc. Twitter was never about fast communication between two people, no one every said "Let's see if Mike…

Your understanding of WeChat is not very accurate. It's on a completely different level of integration with daily life than Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or anything else. It doesn't really do ads because companies run their shop on WeChat. It has a payment system, it lets you book and pay for taxis, order lunch, etc. In comparison, Snapchat is hot air.

Hmm I didn't know that about WeChat. I've never used it, thanks for the clarification.

Re: Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

#165

Post by [deleted] »

taf2 wrote: post #158
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The engineering community is sleeping on Snapchat, but shouldn't be. My life is AR. I'm the CEO for an AR company, I speak write and live and breathe all things AR. Snapchat is poised to be the most important AR company around for several reasons. 1. They have a MASSIVE userbase that is comfortable with sharing their lives 2. That userbase has already shown an interest in AR - and yes whether you like it or not their…

Sorry... I tried googling this but what is AR?

[deleted]

Re: Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

#166

Post by sysexit »

maruhan2 wrote: post #157
duaneb wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like twitter: interesting, perhaps the future, but not a business worth investment. How can they succeed where twitter failed? The ads have ruined the app. Everyone I know who uses it agrees it performs terribly and is extremely difficult to avoid unwanted, irrelevant ads. Again: it's twitter.

It's a better case than twitter though. There is no obvious way of monetizing twitter, while there are many ways that I can think of that snapchat can monetized. For example, Line and Kakao have massively succeeded with their sticker/character business, and snapchat could bring something similar. There are many other ways I can list. So, the issue is not "What are possible methods of monetization?" but "How do I opti…

So 4B for a selling stickers business model?

Re: Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

#168

Post by rufb »

sysexit wrote: post #166
maruhan2 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a better case than twitter though. There is no obvious way of monetizing twitter, while there are many ways that I can think of that snapchat can monetized. For example, Line and Kakao have massively succeeded with their sticker/character business, and snapchat could bring something similar. There are many other ways I can list. So, the issue is not "What are possible methods of monetization?" but "How do I opti…

So 4B for a selling stickers business model?

Kakao's business model history is actually rather fascinating, and they keep grabbing sizeable market shares in unlikely or previously inexpressive markets to great success.

> In 2012, KakaoTalk's $42 million revenue is broken down to 67.5% ($31.1M) gaming, 26.2% ($12.1M) advertising, and 6.3% ($2.8M) emoticon sales. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KakaoTalk#Company_Business_Mod...

Re: Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

#169

Post by rufb »

saretired wrote: post #161
capkutay wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do facebook and Google make money? Selling ads in social network and search land. Having an enormous, religiously active user base has proven time and time again to be a huge cash cow.

Google and Facebook capture user data across many dimensions, and so are able to present advertisers with highly targeted groups of prospects. I don't know if that's the case with Twitter or Snapchat. I would say that the more a site presents you with ads you have no interest in, the less likely it is that they have fine-grained profiles of their users (which is where the money is).

The way it stands, Snapchat already has more data points to tap from and richer content and interaction opportunities than traditional media (television, radio, print, OOH...), and this could be further improved in future versions. You don't need to set out to compete against Google and Facebook when the actual big fish in the market are in fact easier to position yourself against.

Re: Snapchat Seeks to Raise as Much as $4B in IPO

#170

Post by reneherse »

tashoecraft wrote: post #93
adamnemecek wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that they will write these off evetually. To me they feel very similar to Google glass insofar the customer bases being somewhat similar, maybe spectacles' being somewhat younger.

Google Glass and Spectacles are not even close to the same customer base. Google glass was a luxury beta product for techies with lots of disposable income. Spectacles are targeted towards 15-25yr olds. Google Glass users wanted to use the "future" of technology where as spectacles users want to Snap and share more. I'm surprised their hasn't been nearly the same adverse reaction to spectacles as there was to glass.…

Good observations. The difference with Spectacles is playfulness and fun: kids goofing off for the camera on a beach vs normcore cyborg narrating on a bluetooth headset.

A potential weakness of Spectacles as a product is that it augments only non-selfie, "extraverted" photography. So it doesn't engage the selfie obsessed side of the userbase as much as the phone-based AR filters do.

I haven't been a fan of Snapchat, but now I'm curious to see how users react to this product.

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