I really wish valuation was a measure of how much value you can get out of a company and not how much somebody is willing to pay for it.
If someone is willing to pay that much money for the company, then you can get that value of it.
America Online to Buy Internet Chat Service for $287 Million (1998)
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Re: America Online to Buy Internet Chat Service for $287 Million (1998)
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
oh and the fact that whatsapp actually is very profitable
20 million in revenue last year is very profitable? Twitter makes that in a day.
Twitter generates about $2M in revenue a day. And they make nothing since they're not profitable. So compared to Twitter, WhatsApp is undefined profitable.
Re: America Online to Buy Internet Chat Service for $287 Million (1998)
#63$19 billion and whatsapp has 465 million users, and ICQ was purchased for $287 million had 12 million users at the time. $40 dollars per user vs $24 dollars per user. Now if the goal were to acquire users. its far more likely that facebook would have a huge overlap in the number of users it has already and those on whatsapp. That means maybe a cost of acquisition at let's completely speculate $100 dollars per user(ma…
oh and the fact that whatsapp actually is very profitable
If you can call a P/E of 800+ "very profitable"? Making $20M a year profit is no small thing at all, and I'm sure if it was bought for a billion, you'd see far less comments on the subject.
Re: America Online to Buy Internet Chat Service for $287 Million (1998)
#6412834982 -- can't believe I can still remember it. I haven't signed on in well over a decade. Kinda proud, not gunna lie. And according to Google, my last nickname was "Blake's Alright", must have been going through some teenage melancholy at the time, haha
Re: America Online to Buy Internet Chat Service for $287 Million (1998)
#6540979067. I don't even know how I remember. I haven't used ICQ for 15 years.
316666. Haven't used it in many years. Obtaining that number was fun, as well :)
Re: America Online to Buy Internet Chat Service for $287 Million (1998)
#66Either 300mill was a steal for AOL or Valuations are out of hand?... Which one is it?
Well, 300M for 12M users, which is a lot fewer than the services that get bought for big numbers today. But magnitude of the money aside, has an online messaging service ever been able to really turn a huge profit? chongli points out that AOL eventually sold ICQ for less than they paid, and I can't think of any others off the top of my head (AIM didn't prevent AOL from being overtaken by Facebook, say). They seem to…
> has an online messaging service ever been able to really turn a huge profit?
You could make the argument that Tencent did, as some are apparently doing when comparing them to Snapchat and seeing visions of billions dancing in their muddled heads.
But that ignores the Asia factor. Where it's not uncommon to find one conglomerate company making toasters, lamp shades, bars of soap, and rockets. Tencent makes video games and they also run the equivalent of PayPal. And, of course, they pimp out their cuuuuute mascot. Since, you know, it's Asia. WhatsApp has a generic-looking icon and no mascot. They are pretty much doomed.
Re: America Online to Buy Internet Chat Service for $287 Million (1998)
#6740979067. I don't even know how I remember. I haven't used ICQ for 15 years.
Why didn't they allow strings for username? Technical limitations?
Actually, the uin was not that important. You could be identified by your email, for instance, or name and surname.
But people had the habit of exchanging UIN and this was it.
24811423
Re: America Online to Buy Internet Chat Service for $287 Million (1998)
#6840979067. I don't even know how I remember. I haven't used ICQ for 15 years.
Why didn't they allow strings for username? Technical limitations?
Actually, the uin was not that important. You could be identified by your email, for instance, or name and surname.
But people had the habit of exchanging UIN and this was it.
24811423
Re: America Online to Buy Internet Chat Service for $287 Million (1998)
#69Someone mentioned about trying to find out if their have ever been any other chat services that have really made a lot of money on it's own, and it sparked memory of an acquisition that didn't happen quite that long ago, Microsoft buying Skype in 2011, and here is a good recent article about it:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/30/skype-micr...
The bullet point that stands out for me is this:
• Problems monetising it: revenues at the time – $860m for the year, losses of $7m – amounted to just $1.30 per user per year
So, here we have a company, at acquisition, that was making close to the $1 per year per user that WhatsApp is charging. At the end of 2010 skype had 663 million users and was acquired for $8.5 billion. That's $12.82 a user.
Then, as now with WhatsApp, people are questioning whether Microsoft would ever make enough money to justify such a price. Then, as now, people justified the price based on the sort of intangibles (getting rid of a competitor, strengthening the brand, tapping new markets, etc.) the WhatsApp acquisition is being justified with now.
But there is still the big difference that Facebook, with a business in a similar space (obviously still different but they both are chat/communication based), with a similar revenue model per user per year, but only 3 years later purchased it for $42.22 per user. That's almost 4x the price for a similar acquisition 3 years apart.
And people thought Microsoft was crazy for the price they paid for Skype ... it kind of makes you wonder what the hell is going on.