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Comment by dhimes | Hacker News Reader

Something doesn't smell right here. They're losing an executive per month in 2015. They must not be very profitable, because their valuation is supposedly (according to TFA) US $15B and they recently got a large investment. I wonder what's up?

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Snapchat appears to be pivoting towards a curated media company, which is a far different beast than the photo sharing model 2 years ago.

It requires deep relationships with Madison Ave NY agencies and the LA entertainment industry.

Google App Engine may be their own remaining "must have" connection to Silicon Valley, from an Investors perspective.

I never understand the rationale behind building a huge userbase and then abandoning them... pardon... 'pivoting' to something completely different. That hasn't worked particularly well for Foursquare/Swamp and it won't work for Snapchat either.

It would depend on how much money the founders have been able to syphon out of the business along the way. If investors are dumb enough to give you money to build a business that can’t be monetized then who are you to say no (provided of course you can figure out a way of getting your hands on some of the cash).

True. But obviously at some point that system will stop working. And then everyone in the biz, from engineers to product and design people to even the investor types will suffer. As they did in 1999/2000.

What profit is that?

they charge brands $750k/day to advertise.

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