Re:Let's stop laughing at Groupon
by nemothekid on Monday January 26, 2015 @03:27PM
(#8949355)
>So where's the investment capital for them then?
Everywhere. Look at the numbers - Groupon has only taken a total of 1B in investments. SpaceX recently took 1B alone from Google in a single investment - and on top of the public billions spent on NASA, and private billions spent on SpaceX, Boeing, Lockheed - and the numerous other academic research projects.
The difference, I'm sure, is publicity. I'm sure the Groupon IPO got a ton more press than the curiosity landing. You simply don't hear about how the billions are being spent on those project because they don't have relatively massive returns in 5-8 years like a social coupon company would, and large money is spent on relatively small, uninteresting steps.
Likewise it isn't wise for a private fund to aggressively invest in these spaces. What would be an individual firm's financial return on developing the internet? A lot less than the financial return on Google.
Everywhere. Look at the numbers - Groupon has only taken a total of 1B in investments. SpaceX recently took 1B alone from Google in a single investment - and on top of the public billions spent on NASA, and private billions spent on SpaceX, Boeing, Lockheed - and the numerous other academic research projects.
The difference, I'm sure, is publicity. I'm sure the Groupon IPO got a ton more press than the curiosity landing. You simply don't hear about how the billions are being spent on those project because they don't have relatively massive returns in 5-8 years like a social coupon company would, and large money is spent on relatively small, uninteresting steps.
Likewise it isn't wise for a private fund to aggressively invest in these spaces. What would be an individual firm's financial return on developing the internet? A lot less than the financial return on Google.