News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round. Parent comment

Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by argonaut on Thursday May 26, 2016 @06:58PM (#11782367)
I don't buy this scenario. The failure scenario I have in mind is their monetized products fail to catch on, and they are basically like Twitter - no other products that directly compete in that niche, but not a cash cow either. Or WhatsApp - very popular, not a cash cow.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by gjolund on Thursday May 26, 2016 @07:02PM (#11782396)
Just as plausible, if not more so.

I just view the constantly aging 18-24 year old demographic as the main driver of viral growth these days. As that demographic ages out a new flavor of the week will emerge.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by wrsh07 on Friday May 27, 2016 @08:40AM (#11785591)
That would make sense if most high school students didn't currently use Snapchat
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by the_watcher on Thursday May 26, 2016 @08:29PM (#11782961)
Common misconception: Twitter has actually pretty steadily increased its revenue per user. Their issue is that their user growth has basically plateaued far short of the ubiquitous level they need.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by argonaut on Thursday May 26, 2016 @09:12PM (#11783166)
I am aware of that difference. As a company Twitter is not a cash cow.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by the_watcher on Friday May 27, 2016 @01:36PM (#11787569)
Sure, but the statement that they were unable to monetize the product is incorrect. They have successfully monetized the product. They (so far) have been unable to keep the user base growing at a rate that a public company generally requires.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by argonaut on Friday May 27, 2016 @07:08PM (#11789713)
I didn't say they would be exactly the same company. They would just be in the same position.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by malchow on Friday May 27, 2016 @10:03AM (#11786079)
As a few dozen people managing a webapp on AWS from home while eating udon noodles, it'd be a cash cow.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by argonaut on Friday May 27, 2016 @07:05PM (#11789703)
I know people who have worked at Twitter. Twitter's systems cannot be run, even in maintenance mode, by only a few people on AWS. Not only would Twitter crash / crawl to a halt on AWS, but that's not even enough people.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round by the_watcher on Friday May 27, 2016 @01:37PM (#11787578)
Exactly. Twitter earned nearly $600M last quarter. Claiming that it has not successfully monetized is simply false.
[ Parent | on HN ]