So you reg a domain, create an app and 20 months later turn down $3B!

[lennco]

That's how you do it :tu:
Thay reg'd Snapchat.com 2/28/12

Snapchat turned down more than $3 billion from Facebook

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/11/13/report-facebook-offered-snapchat-3-billion/3517929/

:kickass:

 

[loredan]

Nope, you're wrong

They reg'd Snapchat.com in 2012 , came up with a great idea, built an app and most important they built a business! Thats how they did it!

Everyone can reg a domain and build an app (or have someone build it for them) but the idea and the business implementation is something that might be worth $3bn

 

[lennco]

Nope, you're wrong

They reg'd Snapchat.com in 2012 , came up with a great idea, built an app and most important they built a business! Thats how they did it!

Everyone can reg a domain and build an app (or have someone build it for them) but the idea and the business implementation is something that might be worth $3bn

I think you took my heading a little too seriously

 

[Jasonn]

snapchat is a pretty terrible thing from what i hear about it. kids using it to send nude pics of each other, etc. total fools to turn it down. they will regret it eventually.

 

[iowadawg]

Maybe they are smart?
Facebook is not the only game in town that wants them.
Or on this planet....

The 2-year-old Snapchat has been approached with offers including an investment from China's Tencent Holdings that would value the start-up at $4 billion.

Read the entire article.

I would of turned down the money also.

 

[VisionEdger]

its worth about $500k in reality. these sites r so inflated due to their marketing whos involved etc etc

these sites r like buying a new car, drive it off the lot and lose 40% in value. over time they sink even lower

 

[alien51]

its worth about $500k in reality. these sites r so inflated due to their marketing whos involved etc etc

Sounds so much like Domaining. lol

If i had a domain worth reg fee, and 5 guys are trying to fight each other offering me X,XXX i'll probably reject offers until i see what kind of money everyone else is offering me.

 

[mrfike]

Facebook and a few others are holding the app market up right now. Google is struggling to get new paid apps, and it's only getting worse. Why pay when you can get it for free. Whoever is pulling the strings at snapchat needs to take the money and run, and soon, or it will be gone, worthless, see myspace, yahoo/aol chat, all that.

 

[surprise]

Sounds so much like Domaining. lol

If i had a domain worth reg fee, and 5 guys are trying to fight each other offering me X,XXX i'll probably reject offers until i see what kind of money everyone else is offering me.

Its easy to turn down 5-10 K and its a risk well worth taking but $3B ?!

 

[alien51]

Its easy to turn down 5-10 K and its a risk well worth taking but $3B ?!

Well, they did say in that news that the reason why they are turning it down, is because they are reviewing other offers.

They never said they will completely turn down ALL offers, and go it alone just like what Friendster did.

 

[johname]

10 years from now we can easily say "SnapChat WTF was that?" If everyone adopts their pic method

But Do they have a patent on pic blowing up? If they do that would be huge and a big reason to buy them instead of building your own. People today will pay a billion for the right patents.

 

[alien51]

Here is a quote from that news article:

.... The Los Angeles-based company, founded by 23-year-old Evan Spiegel, recently turned down the offer because it's currently being courted by multiple investors, according to a source familiar with the matter.

 

[johname]

This part worth repeating lol

"Snapchat has joined the list of tech companies — like Tumblr and Instagram — with no money coming in"

 

[alien51]

Actually, "no money coming in" is not unusual for venture capital businesses.

Even in the stock market, many companies trade above their intrinsic book value. That's because investors try to factor-in the so-called "projected income". As an investor, your mindset would be to get in while the price tag is cheap versus that "projected income".

Given the number of institutional investors for this SnapChat, i'm sure their decision is being greatly influenced by these investors who already have money in SnapChat.

 

[johname]

There two ways to make money without selling it. Charge people to use it or show ads.

Obviously those two 20 somethings sold off their making the real sell call to the first people to invest 13 mil into the company. There just hard balling it now.

 

[surprise]

Well, they did say in that news that the reason why they are turning it down, is because they are reviewing other offers.

They never said they will completely turn down ALL offers, and go it alone just like what Friendster did.

Even if a group of investors is willing to pay billions it doesn't necessarily mean its really worth that much , the fair value could be just a few millions , this niche is ridiculously over priced and speculative ...

 

[kemjika11]

But $3B is ALOT of money so they probably should have just taken it and run...kind of another domaining move

snapchat.com is a very nice .com i must admit.quality .com hand regs like that dont come easily.

 

[Ted.T]

My friends, when you will receive such offers every week, you will see how difficult is to choose the right one. But, until then, we can't judge them. Let's be honest, Snapchat founders are not stupid, and they know how to play in this market. So, if they rejected a $3B offer, this means they have another, maybe even better, offer.

 

[alien51]

Amazingly, no one among you tried to click the link and read the news article.

They turned down the 3B, because they were getting offers from other buyers - with a Chinese company offering them 4B.

This proves that paying premium for a good Copywriter can be really worth it. Nobody reads beyond the headlines.

 

[iowadawg]

Sorry, but I did read the whole thing.
See my post again.

 

[lennco]

Amazingly, no one among you tried to click the link and read the news article.

They turned down the 3B, because they were getting offers from other buyers - with a Chinese company offering them 4B.

This proves that paying premium for a good Copywriter can be really worth it. Nobody reads beyond the headlines.

Yes I read it before I posted it.
They did Not get $4b offer.
Read it more carefully Its all in the wording.

The 2-year-old Snapchat has been approached with offers including an investment from China's Tencent Holdings that would value the start-up at $4 billion.

The Chinese company wants to invest in the company and they have put a value of $4b on it.
That just means they are willing to invest in Snapchat and the amount of equity they are willing to buy would put a value of $4b on Snapchat.

Example: They may want to invest $2b for 50% and that would put a $4B valuation on the company.

They did not get a $4B offer.

Furthermore, lets say the Chinese co offered them $500m for 12.5% of the company, that too would put a valuation on the Snapchat at $4B.
But lets say the fail in a year, then it would have been stupid to have turned down $3B in Cash.
To turn down $3B because someone wants to Buy-In to your company and puts a higher value on it doesn't make it a sure thing, they are still taking a big risk by turning down Facebooks offer.

Anyone remember when Yahoo turned down Microsoft's offer of $47.5 billion about 5 years ago?
Big mistake.

 

[johname]

I think we all read it, just its not as some would seem

They turning down 3B because they think the bidding war will escalate. Making any conclusion that there is a higher offer on the table is pure speculation. A more correct reading of it would be the number of offers is making them wait for a bigger payday.

You can turn down offer X just because your getting multiple new offers even if there less than X.

SC will play the Chinese offer to get FB to up the ante.

They figure high school kids will always want their party pics to blow up so there safe for now

 

[alien51]

Ok, my "getting offers" was a bit exaggerated.

But then again, they were "in talks" with many suitors. Why does it seem to be a big deal that they turned down 3B and just run away? It would have been understandable, like what you said a bidding war could break out.

And besides, the internal investors could also be looking to becoming part of a "possible" future cash cow, and not just a single pay day.

Again... so many things to play out the cards. But even at Yahoo, the way the story was written was like wow why did you turn down 3B, are you insane??? There is more journalistic factor here, rather than economics.

 

[Jasonn]

oh, look what i read today and there are tons more of the same stories out there...sounds like a great app..

Ten boys, aged 13 to 15, appeared in youth court in Laval, Que., today to face child pornography charges, after a school teacher caught a boy with explicit photos allegedly taken with the smartphone application Snapchat.

Lorrain said some of the alleged victims thought they were safe because they were using the Snapchat app, which allows users to take and send photos that disappear from a receiver's device after a few seconds.

However, she said, the young men involved would capture and save screen grabs of the photos before they disappeared.

 

[alien51]

Investors today are looking for "platforms". In Domaining, that would be called "traffic".

Especially for a platform that makes money off advertising. It doesn't matter how crazy your app or domain is. The important thing is how many people are using it, and how often they go back to use it again.

Unfortunately, when your revenue is based on advertising, that's an unstable business model by itself. You could lose advertisers in a Snap (pun intended). What if this is just a "one-hit wonder" ??? How can you recover that 3B investment? Not to mention that this SnapChat allegedly caters mostly to 13-to-23 year old humans. This is a bankrupt range of target audience.