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
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.
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.
Look how that turned out.
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.
I know you were being snarky, but those numbers are pretty solid. Probably not the best counterexample.
Snapchat has the same demographic, but it's now much larger and their users are spending way more time in the app.
"Toys are not really as innocent as they look. Toys and games are preludes to serious ideas.”