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Pinterest S-1

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Re: Pinterest S-1

#171

Post by nradov »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #107
sharkweek wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ELI5 - are there any prevailing theories as to why this is?

The first-order issues are: a) Money. Most places do not have a lot of surplus wealth, and only a few places in Europe do. Consumers need to have extra money to spend on 'stuff' beyond the very basics, i.e. a consumer oriented economy for a lot of ads to work. b) Fragmentation. This is a two-sided problem. Most countries are very small, have their own laws, regs, and networks for everything that are very established.…

I thought the EU eliminated most of the fragmentation in laws and regulations?

Re: Pinterest S-1

#172

Post by joncrane »

zepearl wrote: post #126
mruts wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but America has relatively low taxes and high income. This is an anecdote, but I was looking at developer jobs in Europe and the salaries are pathetic. 65k Euros for a senior engineer with a 50% tax rate? Are you fucking kidding me? I can make 250k in the US at a 35% rate. It’s absurd. No wonder Europe has a brain drain problem...

Developers earn 250k USD/year in the US? Any reference to the european "brain dead"-problem?

Absolutely. Many in Silicon Valley make much, much more as Individual Contributors.

Re: Pinterest S-1

#173

Post by aclsid »

skinnymuch wrote: post #166
aclsid wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP) where the World Bank, IMF and the CIA, they all agree China is on top now. But I'm truly impressed how that fact seems to offend people here based on the downvotes these replies get.

PPP isn’t the actual amount. That’s why people are talking rightfully about nominal. Facebook makes money based off your nominal money, not an algo based PPP since it’s not a real number. All those organizations you mention all agree USA is still on top for nominal GDP. I unfortunately think you’re projecting with the people getting offended bit.

Ok in there you have a point. I ended up doing some more reading about this and saw this https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/china-worlds-b...

So you are right with the nominal distinction, and if I was wrong about that, then the downvotes probably reflected that more than any opinion of mine.

Re: Pinterest S-1

#174

Post by bradstewart »

aiisjustanif wrote: post #142
Theodores wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well spotted. The main search is definitely the mySpace trajectory: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=p... ...but you have found the more accurate guess-data. Pinterest have presumably done well with Google's carousel that shows image search results at the top of the list. I am not sure the HN crowd is target demographic. Who here is looking for a new outfit to buy and wear? Who is wanting in…

Don't forget the massive planning scene. Wedding, engagement, baby shower, quinceañera, bar mitzvah, proposals. You name it. If you have a fiance, more than likely she a Pinterest board or is following multiple for ideas.

This. And home design. Our architect and wedding-related vendors (florists, chair rentals, etc) effectively required us to use Pinterest.

Re: Pinterest S-1

#175

Post by shoo »

grivescorbett wrote: post #26
samcampbell wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

R&D was $208M in 2017 and $252M in 2018, which was about 45% and 33% of revenue, respectively.

Thanks on my mobile. So revenue grows at 1.5x while R&D grows at 1.2x. Having that asset on your B/S looks pretty good over a few years.

assuming that the R&D expenses largely convert into some kind of assets.

edit: is anyone able to comment how the accounting for this kind of thing usually works?

e.g. if a company spent $1m on R&D, can it arbitrarily add a line item on its balance sheet for around $1m of research outputs as some flavour of intangible asset? (this is obviously not a very accurate way to account for things in cases where the R&D failed to produce anything of utility, or produced much less utility that the R&D cost) or are the assets produced by R&D (if any) meant to be fairly valued in isolation from the cost to produce them?

Re: Pinterest S-1

#176

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

filoleg wrote: post #103
dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately, not even FB can really extract much value outside of North America. Unfortunately for whom?

For companies that are trying to monetize outside of North America.

That may be unfortunate for FB, but very fortunate for the citizens of these countries.

Re: Pinterest S-1

#177

Post by skinnymuch »

aclsid wrote: post #173
skinnymuch wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PPP isn’t the actual amount. That’s why people are talking rightfully about nominal. Facebook makes money based off your nominal money, not an algo based PPP since it’s not a real number. All those organizations you mention all agree USA is still on top for nominal GDP. I unfortunately think you’re projecting with the people getting offended bit.

Ok in there you have a point. I ended up doing some more reading about this and saw this https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/china-worlds-b... So you are right with the nominal distinction, and if I was wrong about that, then the downvotes probably reflected that more than any opinion of mine.

Even then, when India or China overtake, they’ll still be poor countries in many ways. Only a fraction of their populations will have disposable income at a level that companies can expect to get.

Of course you don’t need all the people in the country to have (disposable) money since their populations are so big.

And companies like PinDuoDuo in China have shown they can become $30B public companies with a profit in 2 years by mainly targeting poorer or more rural Chinese.

Re: Pinterest S-1

#178

Post by acchow »

nradov wrote: post #170
dsl wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A universal truth in the social network space. In all of advertising. Non-US users remain extremely hard to monetize across the board.

The EU advertising industry is only slightly smaller than in the US on a per-capita basis. So obviously those consumers are being monetized, otherwise businesses wouldn't be spending so much on advertising.

US vs. EU advertising spend is about $200bn vs. 100bn euros. On a per capita basis, that is $611/pp vs. 200 euros/pp. I wouldn't call that "only slightly smaller".

Re: Pinterest S-1

#179

Post by acchow »

sharkweek wrote: post #64
dsl wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A universal truth in the social network space. In all of advertising. Non-US users remain extremely hard to monetize across the board.

ELI5 - are there any prevailing theories as to why this is?

The more digital your business is the better able you are to monetize digital (and any) advertising.

Digital advertising becomes more valuable the better you are able to track digital intents/impressions/sales through all your channels.

Re: Pinterest S-1

#180

Post by filoleg »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #176
filoleg wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For companies that are trying to monetize outside of North America.

That may be unfortunate for FB, but very fortunate for the citizens of these countries.

How is it fortunate for citizens of those countries?

If the company monetizes, but in ways that the citizens don't like, they can choose to not use services provided by the company. If they agree with the monetization practices being adequate in exchange for the services provided, they can use the services. Whereas if the company doesn't monetize in the region, they can't afford to provide services anymore, then even those people who are totally cool with the monetization strategy cannot use the services.

TL;DR: if you don't agree with the way a service is monetized, you are free to not use it (obvious limitations apply for things that are essential to living in modern society, like internet or banking; FB doesn't fall under this). Just because you are not ok with the cost associated with using that service, that shouldn't serve as a solid ground for denying service to those people who accept the cost.

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