Snap Inc. filed for its $3 billion IPO Thursday afternoon, ending months upon months of industry anticipation for the popular social media company and its Snapchat app. But it’s taken less than 24 hours for the Internet to call into question Snap’s long-term viability as a public company.
Based on the numbers, Snap looks a lot more like pre-IPO Twitter than it does pre-IPO Facebook. Here’s key figures. https://t.co/yaWYHCZFgV pic.twitter.com/9qz1QqHYOb
— Recode (@Recode)
Social media users have compared Snap to both Twitter (ticker: TWTR) …
Active users: 158m v 218m
Revenue: $404m v $317m
Loss: -$515m v -$79.4mhttps://t.co/wb1hWBfD4M pic.twitter.com/4CrjqtGDCu
— John McDuling (@jmcduling)
Just can’t tell if @Snap is the next @Twitter hesitant to jump on that IPO. Hard to see $$ model. #SnapchatIPO
— Saeed Selvam (@SaeedSelvam)
… and Facebook (FB).
Cult of personality? $SNAP selling Class A shares with NO votes in IPO. You really have to trust that Evan Spiegel is next $FB/Zuck to buy.
— Paul R. La Monica (@LaMonicaBuzz)
Facebook S1: 845m MAUs, 2.7bn daily likes & comments
Snap S1: 158m DAUs, 2.5bn daily snaps
— Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans)
An analyst broke down these comparisons to Business Insider.
“Snap is very early in its monetization,” Rohit Kulkarni, analyst and leader of SharesPost research, told Business Insider. “Snap earned $2.15 per user in North America versus almost $20 earned by Facebook per user recently. Facebook has shown if you execute well, there is significant upside.”
But he also pointed to an area of Snap’s likeness to struggling social media company Twitter, which has had a difficult time growing its user base. “Snap’s user growth is generally slowing down, even in newer geographies outside North America and Western Europe,” he said. It’s also experienced a widespread abuse problem and a swath of leadership exits.
Sequentially, in Q4 Facebook grew almost as fast as Snap despite having 53x the revenue.
— Conor Sen (@conorsen)
People have been commenting on Snap’s long-term prospects, regarding everything from profitability to pointing out details of its IPO.
Snapchat’s pitch to investors: We have lost money, expect to lose more, and may never achieve profitability
— Ben Popper (@benpopper)
if Evan Spiegel or his cofounder are fired they can potentially still control the company pic.twitter.com/n5bF1WYgJk
— Erin Griffith (@eringriffith)
The best thing about the Snap IPO is that Google might make more money from Snapchat than Snapchat makes from Snapchat pic.twitter.com/l6qXRY1ZeL
— David Pierce (@pierce)
Very skeptical about Snap’s IPO. It’s best to stay away until a winner is revealed between instagram and snap……..
— KC (@KBN91)
Still more than sceptical about this IPO and the long/mid-term success of #snap. https://t.co/8zcsCNjVBP
— Bernd Vehlow (@bevehl)
Snap’s IPO is poised to turn its co-founders into billionaires and make some venture capitalists very happy.
— governn1 (@governn1)
Of course, others just took to Twitter to tease the company. One user called out an explainer in Snap’s IPO filing on how to use its signature app, Snapchat.
Even the timing of Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel’s wedding seems calculated to generate press for the Snap IPO https://t.co/fReVv88jE9
— Christopher Mims (@mims)
the the only explanation I’ve ever seen of how to actually use snapchat is buried in its IPO filing pic.twitter.com/FKCaizd0xF
— John Lagomarsino (@johlag)
And some were excited for Snap nonetheless.
@Snap is a $3 billion advertising company. It’s amazing, I’m excited to see what happens after the Snap Inc. IPO. #ThursdayThoughts
— Robert Martinez (@RobWMartinez)
Excited for Snap Inc’s IPO #BoldPrediction it will open up at $27 billion, exceeding expectations. I’ll probably buy a couple shares myself
— Kevin Ren (@KevinRen_)
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Why People Are Skeptical About Snapchat Parent Snap IPO originally appeared on usnews.com
