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

Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–167 of 167 posts

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#161

Post by jklinger410 »

RandallBrown wrote: post #125
jklinger410 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an internet marketer I have got to agree with you on this completely. No one wants to even give a second of time to the ads in Snapchat. They are obtrusive and in the middle breaking up the content you want to see. For personal branding Snapchat is great. For communicating directly with people you care about, Snapchat is great. I honestly don't see it going anywhere beyond that. Probably going out of business due…

Snapchat makes money from more than just ads. People (and businesses) pay for filters. I've seen people do them for their weddings. Also, there's the featured content, which seems pretty popular.

The filters are a great way to monetize but recently they've had to go beyond that.

As they're launching their IPO they are expecting the platform to grow in order to make the investors money. I'm referring more to the IPO than the company's viability as a long-term small to medium size business.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#162

Post by duaneb »

nv-vn wrote: post #135
duaneb wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree they are working on cool things, this is entirely separate from an ability to monetize it. This is the part I doubt; I don't see anything that indicates they would succeed where twitter failed.

AR filters are huge on the app. Being able to use them as advertisements has already proven successful.

Hmm, I'll believe that when they turn a profit.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#163

Post by shostack »

monkmartinez wrote: post #118
shostack wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be surprised then to learn that Line makes $270M/yr on stickers. Think of these as fashion items. Trend-driven, fleeting, and a way for people to make statements about themselves. Many here might not have much interest in fashion, but there's no denying it is a massive industry. As augmented reality becomes big and wearables become mainstream, filters like Snapchat offers will clearly grow in demand and value a…

> As augmented reality becomes big and wearables become mainstream, filters like Snapchat offers will clearly grow in demand and value as virtual fashion goods. This version of the future sounds pretty horrible. One could conceivably put a nudity/porn filter on everyone... or much, much worse. The hacks are going to be epic... can you imagine your fresh new filter getting a ddos attack? Or someone sending out grotesq…

Possibly horrible in some ways, awesome in others. I'd hope for an ecosystem where users have some semblance of secure(ish) control in terms of what is overlaid in their device's viewport, and what others see for them.

But as a user, like with browsers, I'd always want the ability to trump what settings others might be projecting unless it is part of say, an app experience where I'm agreeing to it under the ToS. That way if someone is being offensive with something I don't like, I can decide to switch it off. And I could of course just turn off the AR experience altogether if needed.

But nudity/porn filters will almost certainly be a thing, as will something that cross-references LinkedIn data with other websites to tell you everything you wanted to know about someone including their estimated salary, where they live, how much they paid for their home, etc.

The fascinating part of the next 10-20 years will be observing how the AR ecosystem evolves, how open it will be (hah...), and how society responds. I imagine that like most major shifts in communication and technology, young people will adopt this stuff instantly, and old people will push back because it is offensive, or they can't control it and enforce their viewpoints. History tends to repeat itself in that regard.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#164

Post by johngrefe »

usrusr wrote: post #153
deepnotderp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal hypothesis on this is that they're eating a loss at the price range right now and are trying to figure out if people are interested in the spectacles and at what price.

If anything they are creating a whole lot of media buzz, likely to be perfectly timed ahead of their IPO. The message isn't "we have head mounted cameras, head mounted cameras will dominate the world", the message is "we are more than just another entry in the endless stream of icq successors, continue to expect the unexpected". This might turn out to be more valuable to founders and VCs than the total hardware cost…

That, is totally great. It doesn't get me excited as a market investor. Twitter has been living off their hype and not their balance sheet, and eventually it degrades and erodes a business until it practically isn't one. My experience is of course entirely anecdotal since I'm so heavily involved in hardware startups now. As an ancillary to bolster hype, I agree, it's great.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#165

Post by reconx »

Gnimza wrote: post #108
reconx wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There may be brands looking to drive awareness, like a P&G or Coke or Nike looking to sell you more crap, but advertisers who care about driving sales, measurable sales are not going to be using the platform. As a marketer for a F25, the platform is a joke.

So tell me why advertisers pour out billions for TV ads? Same concept/format?

Awareness, as I mentioned. But the TV medium is dying. Internet marketing is thriving b/c of the ability to target users/consumers with the right ads, at the right time...when you don't have am option to do that, then it falls apart.

Meanwhile for companies like FB, who mine every aspect of your life, the service is now valued at over $300Billion

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#166

Post by photogrammetry »

bfstein wrote: post #130
photogrammetry wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>1) If the rumors are correct that they are looking to raise 4 Billion at a roughly $40 Billion valuation. Was under the impression Snapchat was given a $3-5 billion valuation. I find it hard to accept that Snapchat is worth the same as Tesla and SpaceX combined. In other words, is [a 400-employee company whose core product works only on cell phones to show annoying ads to teenagers as they send each other photos, an…

A company is worth the percentage it captures of the value it creates. You alluded to it in your comment--Snap has a much lower headcount and an order of magnitude less operating costs, so if anything it kind of makes sense that they'd be valued at a relative premium. Also, you may not like Snapchat, but to say it deserves to die when it both a) employs real people and b) clearly serves a market need is such a terrib…

I like Snapchat; it's a great service. However, if they keep introducing more ads while demanding ridiculous valuations, my generation will stop using it.

It would be great for Snapchat and Twitter to be turned into nonprofits like Wikipedia.

Re: Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO

#167

Post by photogrammetry »

tscLegend wrote: post #160
pixelcloud wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least they have something they can sell afterwards...

If I sell you a Book for a million dollars, I make 1 million dollars. If I sell a million books for a dollar each, I make a million dollars. My Company is worth a million dollars. It makes no difference to the quality or what i am selling.

That's not how valuation works, and that's not how revenue models of companies work. Please make less useless comments.
Post reply on HN