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

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

#301

Post by donarb »

pm90 wrote: post #270
bjacokes wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that Google and Facebook have effectively the same level of founder control, albeit with different implementation details. Google even had to issue a new share class in 2014 so that the company could issue more shares without the founders giving up voting control. Snap's approach seems like a more robust long-term way of telling investors that they don't have a say in things.

Yeah, that was especially shady IMO, and I was surprised back then as well. But I thought that was an exceptional case since it was the only company doing that, and it is so profitable etc. But if companies/founders can get away with this, what stops it from becoming the standard?

Non-voting stock is nothing new, it's as old as the stock market.

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

#302

Post by tedunangst »

hueving wrote: post #271
hugs wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, "wait a year" fixes most of these problems.

Well no, it depends on what you are waiting on. Some of the worst horror stories are from people that exercised their options and then waited a year to sell the stock to qualify for long term capital gains. Then the stock subsequently crashed so they owed a massive AMT tax for the difference between strike price and price on exercise and got almost nothing from the actual stock sale.

Better to have a huge AMT tax bill than a huge AMT tax bill and a $2000/month Lamborghini payment.

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

#303

Post by Drumlin »

eldavido wrote: post #222
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…

I think there's a socioeconomic side of this that isn't discussed enough. I have a highly engaging, challenging job that pays well. I'm a holder of an advanced degree, regularly read long-form books, and am engaged and will be married soon. Frankly I think I'm pretty typical a lot of people on HN, and developers in general. I don't consume much media, though. I entirely checked out from facebook and haven't looked ba…

> Are we drug dealers?

Developers build the infrastructure that manufactures the drugs. The owners of that infrastructure are kingpins. The users of these platforms are drug dealers. Each follower or friend is an addict.

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

#304

Post by sgnl »

moolcool wrote: post #193
jeffbax wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Snap has potential to be huge… anything that wins the race to replace TV is going to be big. Whether they can do it before FB clones them/leverages their network is a big open question. That said, despite the fact that I love Twitter more than any other network, almost none of my friends use it maybe ~a dozen people I know closely in real life still post to it. Almost all of my friends use Snapchat and compla…

Snap is the last thing that would replace TV. Nobody sits down and spends a consecutive hour on Snapchat

exactly, people only have a few seconds to watch "TV" now so why not watch a snapchat story? This is their "TV"

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

#307

Post by [deleted] »

pm90 wrote: post #85
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…

> So now we know that there is atleast some appetite for shares with no controlling interest and no indication of paying out a dividend any time soon. A current market cap of 30 Billion is a pretty darn big accomplishment! This is really disturbing. I don't know if its an indicator of too much money in the market, or just the fact that the market itself has expanded so much. Why would investors be OK with losing powe…

[deleted]

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

#308

Post by adventured »

cwkoss wrote: post #306

I wonder how much child pornography goes through snapchat. Given the demographics of their users, I'd bet it's quite a lot. Seems like a pretty major business risk.

You're incorrect, it's a near-zero business risk. The laws regarding how to deal with it are well developed at this point. Reddit, Imgur, Google, Facebook, Instagram, Viber, Kik, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Twitter etc - all have or have had a similar challenge in dealing with it in regards to scale, but in the case of Google or Facebook they're dealing with a drastically larger scale problem than Snapchat will ever see. All Snapchat has to do is follow the same laws that all the other hundreds of popular Internet companies do.

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

#309

Post by adventured »

kilroy123 wrote: post #294
paglia_s wrote: post #42

As an user in their target age (18-24) I have to say that since Instagram started introducing features like stories and stickers the activity in my Snapchat has diminished enormously. I would say 50-70% less activity. I don't know if it's something specific to my social circle or more widespread but anyway it's been impressive

Plus facebook just rolled out the same feature on WhatsApp. Which has, what, 1 billion active users as well? Facebook is going full-throttle trying to compete against snap.

It's extremely clear that Facebook is setting itself up for an anti-trust action in the next few years. Their very aggressive leveraging of their near-monopoly in social to try to kill Snapchat, will be viewed in hindsight similar to Microsoft attacking Netscape with its OS position. If Facebook succeeds, it'll leave them with an overwhelming monopoly in social, there's no scenario under which they won't be pursued by the government thereafter. Plus, you can bet Snapchat and its investors will begin to howl loudly the harder Facebook presses.

Zuckerberg's lust for market domination, will unravel or stagnate his kingdom if he's not very careful. His behavior at this point is looking ever more Gates-like when it comes to trying to knock-off the competition while possessing a near-monopoly (you can do one or the other, but if you're a $400b company and you try to both kill all your competition while having such a position, good luck).

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

#310

Post by username223 »

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…

> So now we know that there is atleast some appetite for shares with no controlling interest and no indication of paying out a dividend any time soon.

Not to mention their $500 million net loss last year. There are cheaper cash incinerators.

> I'm interested to see if they try and make people view the company via GAAP accounting(PnL) or non GAAP measures like engagement, monthly users, etc.

There's no doubt in my mind -- they'll pull some social flim-flam for as long as they can. The whole thing is just nuts. No one's going to buy them now, and their pivot to becoming a "camera company" has yielded an even uglier version of Google Glass.

Man, this surveillance economy bubble feels so close to bursting...

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