News - Yahoo on the brink of investing millions into Snapchat

[HEXUS]

The deal would value the 'zero revenue' mobile messaging start-up at around $10bn.

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[AlexKitch]

Snapchat must be a serious contender for "most over-valued app" ever.

$10bn is a lot of money for something that, in theory, could be prototyped from the ground upwards in under 48 hours by a single, reasonably experienced developer.

[shaithis]

Yahoo never learn.

[kopite]

Yahoo never learn.

They have made some big balls ups over the years but look at their investment in allibaba. 900% Increase isnt too bad..

[Tpyo]

Yahoo never learn.

They have made some big balls ups over the years but look at their investment in allibaba. 900% Increase isnt too bad..

Not bad at all, but blowing all the profit from their biggest recent 'win' and sticking it on a high-risk longshot like this seems crazy. $10 billion for something that does not have any current way to make money. I get that you get access to the user base and everything but you'd better have a hell of a way to monetize this. Hell, think how much money SnapChat would have to make to be equivalent to the interest from $10 billion in 'the bank (a much safer proposition). Ignoring running costs, think how much profit/year a normal company would have to be making to get this kind of valuation and you see how much work they'd need to do to break even WITHOUT killing the user base they paid for through e.g. intrusive advertising or privacy worries.

[Otherhand]

Snapchat is said to be close to receiving millions of dollars

Congratulations, creators!

in investment from Yahoo

Alas, Snapchat. We hardly knew ye.

[slipthemonkey]

I really do not get the appeal of snapchat except to people who want to send pictures of their bits to each other under the delusion that they have then disappeared forever. Can anyone explain what snapchat offers that other apps do not?

[MoshinD]

Ridiculous at $10b