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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

#61

Post by bigtunacan »

niftich wrote: post #40

I'm surprised (rather, disappointed) that the article doesn't make any comparisons to Facebook's IPO. For today's 14-to-25-year-olds, Snapchat is the new Facebook, in terms of user engagement, market penetration, mindshare -- so it stands to reason in terms of valuation it would be too. There are some important differences, of course. Facebook owns multiple properties that mount competition to Snap Inc: Instagram, Me…

Where is the data supporting this statement?

"For today's 14-to-25-year-olds, Snapchat is the new Facebook, in terms of user engagement, market penetration, mindshare"

I'm not saying it's untrue; I would just like to see some reliable data to back this up. Anecdotally; most of the teens I know are using Instagram rather than Snapchat, whereas the people I know using Snapchat are in their mid 20s to mid 30s.

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

#62

Post by yolesaber »

phillnom wrote: post #59
boomzilla wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchats-sponsored-lenses-ar...

Man seeing those peoples faces plastered in ads is positively dystopic.

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

#63

Post by cryptoz »

yolesaber wrote: post #60
cryptoz wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No WiFi. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Lol people post this everytime someone critiques a hyped up new bullshit tech product. Guess what, the vast majority of them fail. Spectacles is not the iPod. It's going to flop, I stand by it.

Your analysis that it is a "gimmick", "bullshit", and "hyped up" is over-simplified and, I think, wrong. There's no need to swear or be mean about this. Some people, myself included (I hate hate hate hate the snapchat app, I'm not able to use it and I can't stand the idea of it) think that Snap does understand product and its market, and has incredible visions for the future with an ability to execute. I think that Snap will be a huge success for a long time to come.

Naysaying Snap is fine, but not if your argument is "bullshit hype".

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

#64

Post by mathattack »

cstejerean wrote: post #12
adamnemecek wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have captured an important segment of the market (12-2x years olds). I also think that people In this age group find it a ton more engaging than the alternatives.

Sure, but what precisely are they planning to spend $4B on?

My 2 cents, with no inside information:

1) They're losing a ton of money. They barely have any revenue, and have over 1,000 employees, many of which are high paid engineers. They also have large technical overhead costs. My guess is they want to sock away 3-4 years of cash since they don't want to go back to the market too often.

2) M&A. Perhaps they buy some technology companies. Or Twitter? Or who knows?

3) They may be cashing out certain earlier investors.

When companies IPO, they have to release a significant amount of equity no matter what.

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

#65

Post by jpalomaki »

niftich wrote: post #53
nemothekid wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are some important differences, of course. I'm surprised you wouldn't bring the biggest difference - the data. Facebook had tons of user data, even at their IPO, while Snap has relatively little.

Facebook owns PII data -- data the user attests -- and user engagement data. Snapchat just has user engagement data -- data derived from the user's behavior. This is a notable difference, but frankly, at this point in time it doesn't matter: every potential advertiser worth their salt knows that the average Snapchat user is between 14-25. Both services usually know location. To many advertisers, the Facebook ad platf…

Profile information can be useful for the platform itself, since they can use it to target specific ads to people who are most likely to engage with them (watch video, click through or do something else). Since there is only limited space for ads available, being successful with this might be quite important.

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

#66

Post by josho »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #17
cstejerean wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but what precisely are they planning to spend $4B on?

Building a war chest to purchase the next company or act quickly. You need to have the cash on hand, and that can't happen overnight. They need not spend the money today.

That's typically a bad reason to give to an investor.

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

#67

Post by babesh »

Their backers and they stand to make money by hyping it up. They are working their channels to get puff pieces written. Not one article I have read is critical of them. Shows you the power of their backers. Doesn't mean you should invest but I bet their backers are powerful enough to make that stock pop the first day.

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

#68

Post by sedachv »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #29
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?

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…

> Their Spectacles release has the potential to build the largest real world image dataset on the planet - something needed (for reasons I won't go into) for AR everywhere.

This is hn, please explain the reasons. Otherwise your post sounds like Donald Trump - "They have AR. They have the best AR!"

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

#69

Post by knz »

yolesaber wrote: post #62
phillnom wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchats-sponsored-lenses-ar...

Man seeing those peoples faces plastered in ads is positively dystopic.

My initial reaction was the same but we already have people walking around wearing or carrying items with corporate branding (sports apparel, well known clothing brands, iPhones etc)
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