what's 6800 paying users of everpix to millions of non paying users of snapchat? snapchat has the sporadic but consistent attention of millions that has considerable value and should not be written off because it hasn't been monetized... yet
Snapchat also hasn't proven it can generate a single real-world dollar from end users or advertisers.
They could implement advertising, fuck the entire service up, and all the teens jump ship to the next app that allows you to easily import all your contacts.
There's no "lock in" with social networks like Snapchat. Want proof? Friendster, Myspace, etc.
The main theme I was trying to get across is that it's more realistic to build a profitable business, instead of throwing efforts towards eyeballs, vc-cash, and a lottery ticket chance of cashing out.
Hmm it's actually somewhere in between, it looks like about a quarter is sticker purchases, a quarter sponsored stickers, and a half in-app purchases. The above articles is off, if you read the link in the article it gives the breakdown above.
There's nothing about Snapchat that is valuable. It's an app that could be thrown together in a few days, and a userbase that is fairly fleeting. If they incorporate invasive advertising, then people will just move to a clone of it. How else would you make money with the retched thing?
I was at a social apps conference a few months back and some interesting statistics were shown about Snapchat. One of the statistics was that Snapchat allows picture messages to be sent 10x faster than regular SMS. I found this fascinating because this is when I stopped looking at Snapchat as an incognito picture sharing app and more of a new, more efficient communication channel.
I don't know how Snapchat plans to monetize. It might be advertising. It might not be. But it's hard to dismiss Snapchat as being valueless when clearly millions of users are using it every single day.
Yeah, Snapchat is much more than a new way to send dick pics to unsuspecting girls. I use it more than SMS these days for legitimate communication with friends. Not the kind of serious communication which requires precision, but the informal type of chitchat you have with people when you hang out. People are underestimating the concept, some form of picture-based communication is around to stay. But I can't say that it'll be Snapchat which is the end of the line, and I do think they will have trouble monetizing.
I've never used it. Is there not a network effect, like Facebook, where leaving is costly "because all my friends use Snapchat"? This switching cost is what ultimately allows social networks to place ads without people jumping ship.
You're right and this is the actual measured risk taken by VC in this case. It's a straight forward bet: if the horse they are better on (snapchat) is given enough of an opportunity (money) to implement far better than any potential competitor without that opporunity, then Snapchat can become a Facebook.
The key differentiator between Snapchat and other competitors is that Snapchat has millions of dollars to throw at problems which, if implemented well, will give them considerable product differentiation through access to the best talent and marketing.
It's a high risk gamble - welcome to VC capital - but it's the business VC is in.
