February 05, 2017
👻 Snap Inc (which make the app Snapchat) wants to be on the stock market so they released their S1 (the document they have to make public to the world about their company so potential investors can see what they’re getting into).
Fairly funny, (or sad?): “On average, more than one in three of our Daily Active Users plays with Lenses every day. We create lots of new Lenses every month because we always want our users to have surprising and entertaining effects to play with.”
Takeaway: More than 50 million people every single day are opening a camera app and applying a dog filter - or something, to their face…
The S1 is available here.
Big move for a company so young. Can imagine it will ruffle feathers of investors who want to see them go public first before taking audacious bets before being profitable. Uber has raised $8.7 billion in capital so far, VCs that don’t hold Uber have already expressed this view this time last year.
Other side of argument: Don’t miss out on big markets by talk half-assed bets early and then never fully committing.
Google is probably the most famous for taking audacious bets but is also famous for falling behind or failing in markets it was primed for: Social, Cloud and Enterprise Messaging especially.
But potentially also self-driving car technology too. Tesla leads the way with owning the full-stack of hardware + software, Uber is playing catchup on Google’s software, and incumbent car companies are wondering if partnering with Google’s technology will leave them with 0 profits. As cars slowly become batteries, wheels and various cameras and the software becomes the key bit that differentiates the self driving experience. And car ownership very slowly heads downward.
Car companies will have taken note of Google’s execution on mobile with smartphone manufacturers that aren’t Apple having to play with Google or have pretty much 0 chance of creating a smartphone that is appealing to consumers.. Interested why? More here
Got distracted, anyway the point is there are two sides to the argument here.
“With theater attendance at a two-decade low and profits dwindling, the kind of disruption that hit music, publishing, and other industries is already reshaping the entertainment business. From A.I. Aaron Sorkin to C.G.I. actors to algorithmic editing, Nick Bilton investigates what lies ahead.”
By 2020 software will be available to generate any type of image or voice. But tech companies will be the best at it.
DE Shaw, Citadel and Two Sigma, which all incorporate so-called “systematic strategies” that trade using computer algorithms, joined the closely followed annual list compiled by LCH Investments, the fund of hedge funds run by the Edmond de Rothschild group
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I'm Henry Moulton, a software design and development freelancer living in London, UK.
My portfolio will be online soon.