Snap’s massive IPO overlooks lack of performance-based advertisers
And, for good reason.
It is one of the largest tech IPOs in recent memory, and the company is one of the only viable challengers to Facebook’s social media dominance.
Indeed, it is the largest U.S. tech IPO since Facebook’s.
Now that Snap is a public company, not only will it have to live up to its valuation, but it will also have to continue to drive user growth, engagement, and revenue.
After two days of trading, Snap Inc. now sits at $27 a share, up 59 percent from its $17 IPO price on Thursday morning, with a market cap of more than $31 billion.
With the debate on Wall Street officially underway, investors must decide where they sit on the bull and bear sides of this equation.
As a social media messaging app reliant upon capturing an increasing percentage of advertising budgets for growth, Snap could face some inherent barriers going forward, particularly if it has hopes of competing with the likes of Facebook or Google for a portion of those advertising dollars.
From there, the company went on to explain why its ads are actually superior to TV, and why the $70 billion in TV ad revenue, just in the U.S., is ripe for the taking.
However, this focus on TV ad budgets, and the expensive, large scale branding campaigns that come with them, ignores a key difference between Snap and Facebook (and Google), which is Snap’s lack of performance-based advertisers.
At the time, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg noted, “We’ve worked hard to make our ads very easy to use, very simple, low cost and high ROI.” While Snap currently has many of the top brand advertisers signed up, hoping to stay relevant to a younger demographic that is watching less TV, many of those dollars are still experimental test budgets, with agencies continuing to ask for improved analytics and provable ROI to justify those spends.
Hiring Tip: Ask About the Candidate, Don’t Talk About the Position
Hiring Tip: Ask About the Candidate, Don’t Talk About the Position.
But, we weren’t listening and asking to really get to know them as a person.
Over time, we adapted our interview process to get to know the candidate and learn what they wanted out of a job instead of trying to sell them on the position we had available.
here are some of the most important questions we ask: 1.
Asking someone about their dream job helps test the potential fit right at the start and lets you know what they want out of a job.
Our team takes regular activity breaks together, and although we work hard, we have fun together as well.
What did you like and dislike about your last job?
What was the culture like at your last job?
This question also helps us improve our company by understanding what potential employees disliked about their previous workplace.
Before your next interview, create a list of five questions you think will reveal the right and wrong candidate based on how a prospective hire will respond.
CCP pushes deeper into virtual reality with Sparc virtual sports game
I talked about the game with Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games, in an interview at the Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco.
That franchise has been extended into virtual reality, but with the sports title, Veigar Pétursson felt it was time to expand to a new intellectual property.
Later on the tracking controllers started to emerge.
There are always nuances to what you do, and the guys spend a lot of time making sure they’re playing to the strengths of the equipment.
Pétursson: We’ve talked about that a lot.
Image Credit: CCP GB: Is this your third generation of VR games?
Obviously from Rift to Vive to PSVR there’s a certain set of commonalities, which we’re aiming Valkyrie and Sparc toward.
Right now there’s a lot to play with as far as just things that are common to the platforms.
If it’s definitely VR, we’ll take a look.
We’ll see if Switch becomes another VR platform.
How to Communicate Your Brand Across Multiple Audiences and Platforms
Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4 Billion in IPO
Snap Opens at $24 on NYSE as Shares Surge Snap Inc., maker of the disappearing photo app that relies upon the fickle favor of millennials, jumped in its trading debut after pricing its initial public offering above the marketed range.
Shares opened at $24 and traded as high as $25.42 apiece Thursday, giving the company a market valuation of about $29 billion, based on the total number of shares outstanding after the offering in the deal prospectus.
Snap sold 200 million shares in its IPO at $17 each, above the $14 to $16 marketed range.
Its market valuation at the IPO price, of about $20 billion, implies a multiple of about 21.4 times EMarketer’s estimate for Snap’s 2017 advertising sales.
After ringing the stock exchange’s opening bell Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel and co-founder Bobby Murphy headed to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s offices in lower Manhattan to await the first trade, according to a person familiar with the situation.
While the advertising business has been built up from nothing in about two years, advertisers have said that the ad-buying process is still overly complicated.
Facebook, with about 1.2 billion active daily users on its flagship platform and 1.2 billion on its messaging tool WhatsApp, trades at a multiple of about 10.5 times revenue estimates for this year.
Twitter, with more than 300 million monthly active users, comes in at 4.8 times projected revenue.
First-Day Pop The company offered the shares in its IPO for $14 to $16 each.
Demand outpaced the number of shares being offered by a multiple of 10, people familiar with the situation said.
5 Tips to Improve Your Odds of Getting a Small Business Loan
5 Tips to Improve Your Odds of Getting a Small Business Loan.
Related: 5 Main Reasons Banks Turn Down Small-Business Owners for Loans In fact, having a great idea is only part of the equation: At some point, most entrepreneurs need a small business loan.
Five tips for getting approved When it comes to getting a small business loan, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the bank or financial institution that you’re interacting with.
That being said, here are a few tips for getting approved.
That’s why it’s best to start the process as soon as you can.
If you’re worried about this part of the process, focus on some ways to improve your credit score.
By paying bills on time and using less of your approved credit line, you can bump your score up a few points in a matter of months.
Have a detailed plan for using the money.
Organization plays a key role in whether or not you’ll be approved for a small business loan.
Getting approved for a small business loan is no easy feat.
Generation Z and the Future of Business
This year, as the Raising Awareness and Human Social 2.0 panel wrapped up, there was one undeniable takeaway: the voice of Millennials and Generation Zers are forcing governments and businesses across the globe to change how they operate.
Through the panel, featuring top entrepreneurs and executives Renato Libric, Rana Gujral and Ryan Patel, we learned that the traditional methods of operating a business has been flipped on its head and now requires much more thought and consideration.
What has changed?
Now, an organization’s stance on what they believe in, as well as their own goodwill in the world, are equal, if not more valuable, than the products they produce.
Patel also expanded on this thought, stating that it’s vital for companies to now be engaged with their consumers.
Just like it’s no longer [okay] for governments to say “we’re doing something.”… Consumers, Millennials and Gen Z can look you up and see what are you doing to make an impact.
Libric noted, “Victims of the hurricane were posting videos of the flood damage they had suffered online and people from all over the globe saw a cause, began communicating with them peer-to-peer, and then used Bouxtie, which prides itself on being transparent, to send digital gift cards for places they can buy what they need, to try to make a difference and get these people back on their feet.” Renato also explained that Millennials and Gen Zers are more interested in experiences, than putting their money into an actual, physical product.
How does this change impact governments?
Libric noted that millennial and Gen Zers are very, “in-tune with themselves and really believe they can make a change.” Naturally, they want to see someone in government, “who is speaking from their heart.” If they don’t, they will be vocal about it until they get what they want.
Millennial and Gen Zers should be proud of themselves.
9 Powerful Time-Saving Tips to Help Grow Your Brand on Instagram
Brands on Instagram are also seeing huge amounts of engagement on Instagram.
In this post, we’re sharing nine time-saving Instagram marketing tips to help you achieve incredible results with less time and effort.
With Buffer for Instagram, you can upload your image and schedule a post on your desktop.
A typical way of reposting an image after asking for permission looks something like this: Take a screenshot on your mobile Crop away everything apart from the image Copy and paste or type out the caption Add your own caption Finally, publish the user-generated content Apps like Buffer and Repost allow you to skip all the tedious steps.
Related: 7 Popular Goal Setting Strategies That Will Help You Achieve Great Things on Social Media A research by New York University business professor, Sophie Leroy, discovered that there’s a cost to switching your attention from one task to another — even if the switch is brief.
He found that while batching was tough, his quality of work increased because he was able to focus on them for a good amount of time: Taking this technique to Instagram marketing, it could mean grouping content creation and scheduling together instead of creating and publishing posts on a daily basis or even several times a day.
Here are some things you can try: Plan a photo-taking session to take multiple photos that can be used for a series of Instagram posts Create and edit all the images you want to post for the upcoming week altogether since you are already in the image editor Upload all the images onto a scheduling tool and add captions to all of them in one setting The additional benefit of creating a week’s worth of posts at a go is that your Instagram posts will be more consistent as you will be thinking ahead.
Using Buffer, you can easily schedule the content you have made for other social media platforms for Instagram as well.
If you have prepared a photo for an Instagram post, you can also schedule it for your other social media profiles.
As a recap, here are the nine tips: Create Instagram posts on desktop instead of mobile Repost quickly with permission Plan how you want your gallery to look like Use a tool to separate content creation and engagement Create a week’s worth of posts at a go Schedule time to engage Prepare commonly used hashtags in an Evernote note Use the same filter and edits Repurpose posts on other platforms for Instagram (and vice versa)
3 Ways to Protect Yourself from a Ransomware Disaster
When ransomware hits, small businesses suffer.
In a recent survey by Datto, more than 91 percent of IT service providers reported that their small business clients were victimized by ransomware in the past year; and 40 percent experienced six or more attacks in that same timeframe.
However, the true ransomware numbers are likely to be far higher, as Datto’s survey showed that less than one in four ransomware incidents are actually reported to authorities.
Three priorities can save your business: education, security and data protection.
Ransom demands are typically fairly low, typically between $500 and $2000 — but that’s only a small fraction of what a business stands to lose in an attack.
For example, 63 percent of respondents to the survey said that ransomware attacks led to “business-threatening” downtime among their clients.
Protecting against ransomware requires a three-tiered approach comprising education, IT security and data protection.
So, education for employees, partners, customers and the general IT community can go a long way in protecting businesses.
However, attackers are constantly using (and improving) social engineering techniques, which enable their strains of malware to remain effective.
Given the scale of the ransomware epidemic, the time has come to take a much more proactive approach to protection.
Building a Hard-Working Team Starts With You
Recruit the right people.
You want a hard working team?
It all starts with recruiting the right people out of the gate.
Create a culture of “all for one, and one for all” prepared to do whatever is necessary to help the company win the race.
When people are showing your desired hard-work ethic behavior, reward them.
Give your key team members a piece of the equity.
Do whatever you need to do to make sure they know their hard work did not go unnoticed, and was appreciated by the team.
People are human, and you need to foster an even work-life balance, to retain your team for the long run.
When you show them what to do, that leaves nothing up for interpretation, and will more quickly get you to your desired end product.
If your employees do not see you putting in the hard work you are asking of them, they will never give it to you.
Spring Deals: Air Purifiers, Solar Panels and More
Spring Deals: Air Purifiers, Solar Panels and More.
Welcome to TechBargains weekly deals where they find the best deals to save you time and money.
After you use that gift card on anything Dell sells from computers to Bose headphones you effectively discount a 4K TV down to $350.
Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Intel Core i7-6500U 15.6″ 1080p Laptop (8GB/1TB) for $549 (Orig.
$220) For $110 the HTC Desire is a good deal.
Asus Zenbook 3 UX300UA Intel Core i5 Dual-Core 13″ 1080p Laptop with 256GB Solid State Drive for $699 At only $700 you are getting a premium laptop which has has everything you would want if you were considering an Apple laptop.
Quickly check the temperature with this fun little infrared temperature gun.
One feature this has that you won’t find in other non-contact temperature guns in this price range is the ability to adjust the emissivity settings.
Cosco Products Centerfold 6-Foot Folding Table for $38.88 (Orig.
Winix 5500-2 True HEPA Air Purifier w/ Carbon Filter & PlasmaWave for $134.99 (Orig.
How Fintech and Payments Innovations Will Disrupt Global Ecommerce
How Fintech and Payments Innovations Will Disrupt Global Ecommerce.
The rapid rise and equally rapid evolution of online and mobile commerce has given rise to a wave of new payment methods.
E-wallets, in-app purchasing, and peer-to-peer payments are all products of consumers’ increasing comfort with digital commerce.
In many developed markets, older payment methods, such as checks and payment on delivery, are being replaced by alternatives that make online and mobile transactions frictionless, thus further feeding consumer appetites for online shopping.
With the growth of international ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Magento and payment platforms like PayPal and Stripe, the barriers to ecommerce are crumbling, giving life to new businesses, opening up new revenue streams for established players, facilitating economic trade, and driving technology advancements worldwide.
As ecommerce continues to become increasingly global, fueled by growth of internet coverage around the world and higher levels of smartphone penetration, the forms consumers use to pay for their digital and physical goods will continue to evolve as well.
This challenge has given rise to a number of increasingly important technologies and companies influencing the payment arena in markets across the world.
Because emerging markets are so complex and so different from each other, ecommerce and digital goods companies are also starting to partner with payments technology companies with deep roots in these markets and coverage of the full locally relevant payment mix.
While digital banking and technology evolves to encompass payments, the needs and wants of consumers are also evolving (though at different pace and with different preferences, depending on the country or region).
The next few years will certainly be exciting for those of us in the fintech, mobile and e-commerce arenas, as we work together to deliver a truly borderless commerce experience regardless of where the consumer may be.
Women Startups Take Their Turn in Tech
Women Startups Take Their Turn in Tech.
The electronics and high-tech industry has a long history of being male-dominated.
Now, however, signs are pointing to things changing if only slowly.
Women are founding more startups than ever before.
At the same time, research has shown that companies with diverse leadership do better.
Women do seem to have an edge when it comes to getting funded using crowdfunding platforms, though.
“Pitches created by women were more likely to express positive emotion, vividness, and inclusiveness, and less likely to use business language,” said the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley.
“And that partially accounts for why women did better.” The infographic below from Women who Tech outlines some other trends.
What do you see happening in your industry sector when it comes to female leadership and funding?
Let us know in the comments section below.
Snap debut is strong, but can the hot startup go the distance?
Snap debut is strong, but can the hot startup go the distance?.
The snap judgment on Snap (SNAP), sponsor of the disappearing-message social network that is all the rage among teens, is that it is a hit — for its first day as a public stock.
Up more than 44 percent on Thursday, Snap’s stock gave heart to investors amid a languid market for initial public offerings.
Only 26 tech companies went public in 2016.
Since the March 2009 market bottom, after the financial crisis, the S&P 500 has climbed 254 percent, while the Bloomberg IPO index rose 165 percent.
Its revenue was up sevenfold last year to $404 million.
Facebook went public in May 2012 at $27 a share and went nowhere for a year.
And Facebook did not go up at all at its debut.
Since its late 2013 launch, an exchange-traded fund dedicated to initial offerings, the Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO), has advanced just 9 percent.
The S&P is up 80 percent since then.
Jeff Bezos Wants to Create a Delivery Service for the Moon
Jeff Bezos Wants to Create a Delivery Service for the Moon.
It seems that Elon Musk is not the only one with his eye on travel to the moon.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who, like Musk, is in the reusable rocket game through his company Blue Origin, has reportedly submitted plans to NASA and the White House regarding the development of a lunar lander that would land near the south pole of the moon and be powered by energy from the sun.
It seems that Bezos’s vision for Blue Origin also includes applying his expertise in shipping and delivery to outer space.
In a memo obtained by The Washington Post, Bezos said he hopes that NASA will support his idea for a service that would ship the equipment necessary to eventually facilitate scientific experiments and to make a habitat fit for humans to settle on the moon.
Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, told the paper that “It is time for America to return to the Moon — this time to stay.
A permanently inhabited lunar settlement is a difficult and worthy objective.
I sense a lot of people are excited about this.” The CEO said that the first Blue Origin moon mission could happen as soon as the summer of 2020, but that a partnership with NASA is crucial to making that happen.
“Our liquid hydrogen expertise and experience with precision vertical landing offer the fastest path to a lunar lander mission,” Bezos told the Post.
“I’m excited about this and am ready to invest my own money alongside NASA to make it happen.” Earlier this week, Musk announced that SpaceX is planning to send two tourists to the moon in 2018.
School makes millions from Snapchat IPO
Well that’s not the whole story.
Not this time.
In 2012, he began, the school invested $15,000 in a cool new app that was being used incessantly by Andrew and Natalie Eggers, two siblings who attended the school.
Mr Eggers was suitably impressed, and so Lightspeed led a $500,000 investment round – Snapchat’s first. ‘Investment matured’ The firm invested $485,000, but Mr Eggers also convinced Saint Francis High School to throw in $15,000 from a school development fund set up in the 1990s.
In what must go down as one of the understatements of the year, Mr Chiu’s letter on Thursday continued: “The school’s investment in Snap has matured and given us a significant boost as we continue our work towards realising the bold vision and goals.”
One of those goals is to make education at Saint Francis – a private, Catholic school where tuition costs $17,000 a year – more affordable to more people in the surrounding community.
That raised a cool $24m.
It kept hold of a third – and at the close of play on Thursday, Snap’s stock was up by 44%.
In a blog post about the deal, Mr Eggers wrote: “While I’ve enjoyed Snap’s journey with my partners as an early investor, I have the unexpected bonus of sharing the experience with my children.
Take Advantage of Marketplace Cultural Changes to Grow Your Business
Does your organization know how to answer these four fundamental questions about your employees and customers, which directly connect to the six characteristics of the innovation mentality?
Simply put, we need the wisdom to connect to the people and cultures that don’t look and act like us without undermining who and what we are and stand for.
That would require leading with diversity of thought and the six characteristics of the innovation mentality, which allow for the evolution for our businesses.
They can help us make the right investments that will capture new market share using the six characteristics.
How are successful companies doing it?
The change management required challenges them.
When you see opportunities in the right way and drive that through the four skills of opportunity management (see, sow, grow, share) and the six characteristics of the innovation mentality, you can use this success to resow opportunities.
That leads to genuine sustainability and inclusion.
But until you do that, you’ll continue to give away your innovation mentality to competitors that already have it.
It doesn’t matter where I travel — Scandinavia, South Korea, Mexico — everywhere I hear the same thing: Why, given the strength of its corporations and educational institutions, do Americans seem to be getting weaker in their thinking?
Good Thinking Ahead, Nintendo! Switch Cartridges Taste Horrible on Purpose.
Good Thinking Ahead, Nintendo!
Switch Cartridges Taste Horrible on Purpose..
More specifically, those in possession of a Switch and games are tasting the game cartridges.
Why any adult would want to place an expensive game cartridge in their mouth is beyond me, but this is a Nintendo console, meaning children will be handling the cartridges.
With the help of Denatonium Benzonate.
It is unbearably bitter to most humans, so by coating the Switch game cartridges with it the chances are most people placing one in their mouth will spit it out immediately.
It’s pretty much guaranteed a child will only try this once after experiencing the extreme bitterness.
This seems to be the first time Nintendo thought about trying to prevent cartridges being ingested, and it looks as though they are on to a winner.
However, the publicity this is getting means a lot more Switch game cartridges are going to get licked over the course of the console’s lifetime.
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