Social Media

Jack Ma’s buy-and-pay supremacy looks less certain

17 May 2017

The billionaire controls Alibaba and Ant, China's dominant e-commerce and payments outfits worth more than $350 bln. But users are increasingly turning to Tencent's messaging app WeChat to fulfill both functions. The shift is a significant threat to the core of Ma's empire.

Snap lays an egg worthy of Twitter nest

10 May 2017

The messaging app reported its first quarterly results showing a slowdown in user growth. That’s a worrisome trend since its lofty $27 bln value hinges on attracting more people. Meanwhile, rivals are co-opting features. The sheen of being the next new thing is fading fast.

Even yellow flags can’t dent Facebook’s growth

3 May 2017

The social network largely defied its own executives’ slowdown warnings with a 51 pct jump in ad sales, helped by Instagram’s success. Boss Mark Zuckerberg is adding 3,000 staff to police content after a spate of violent videos. He may need more to contain reputational risk.

Twitter unduly attracts financial followers

26 Apr 2017

The struggling social-media company touted user growth as evidence it can get back on track under moonlighting boss Jack Dorsey. Revenue also fell 8 pct, a first since Twitter's 2013 IPO, as advertisers grew skeptical. There's hardly enough evidence to justify the market zest.

United shows service and shareholders don’t fly

10 Apr 2017

The airline’s stock jumped even after video of an innocent passenger being ejected from a flight went viral. Behind the PR flub, United’s second in a month, is an industry at its healthiest in years. Crummy service and low-cost rivals may yet bring shares down to earth.

Facebook will be lost in India’s payments crowd

5 Apr 2017

A mooted move to enable payments through WhatsApp, the messaging service, might help the social media giant retain users in its biggest market. But Alibaba-backed Paytm and a state-backed rival would be fierce competitors. It is hard to see how WhatsApp could stand out.

Tencent’s new high score enables M&A attack mode

22 Mar 2017

The Chinese web giant’s revenue surged 44 pct to $6 bln in the fourth quarter, powered by games and advertising. Fast-growing payments and cloud computing units also contributed. To sustain growth and keep rivals at bay, Tencent's acquisition machine will have to go up a level.

Some tech unicorns choose settling down over love

15 Mar 2017

Snap’s big float opened the gates for other highly valued private startups to go public like MuleSoft, Alteryx, Okta and Yext. All are expanding, yet lose money. The firms need cash and investors are desperate for growth. Both sides have decided they probably can’t do better.

Snap deal is latest in NBC’s Ponce de León series

3 Mar 2017

The U.S. TV network plunked $500 mln into the hyped IPO after some promising experiments with the messaging app. Comcast-owned NBC also has made big investments in BuzzFeed, Vox and other millennial-hunting firms. Beware older generations on epic quests for the fountain of youth.

Cox: Snap IPO marks moment investors donned sweats

2 Mar 2017

The "camera company" debuted successfully because buyers swapped pinstripes for baggy cotton and abrogated their right to fair treatment, good governance and reasonable valuations. If $24 bln Snap becomes the next GoPro, shareholders have only their capitulated selves to blame.

Snapchat valuation requires different filters

28 Feb 2017

Parent Snap is set to go public this week. The traditional market cap at the top of the indicated range is $18.5 bln. Including stock promised to staff, that shoots up to $22.3 bln. Blocking out new money, it's $20 bln. All tallies demand heart-shaped, rose-tinted lenses, though.

Snap’s IPO momentum could be hard to break

16 Feb 2017

The messaging app is seeking a valuation of up to $18.5 bln, less than in its last private fundraising. A cautious initial price may lure buyers. Despite Snap's fading user growth and poor governance, the hype and dearth of new issues mean investors are unlikely to disappear.

Videos revive China’s forgotten social networks

9 Feb 2017

Weibo has tapped a craze for live broadcasts of things like the U.S. Super Bowl and celebrities eating fruit. Ad dollars are pushing up valuations: Weibo's price-to-earnings multiple is higher than Twitter's. Neglected apps benefit, until fickle users move to the next thing.

Snap IPO draft is weirdly switched for GoPro’s

2 Feb 2017

The photo app aiming to raise $3 bln says it's "a camera company" while struggling GoPro claimed it was in media. Snap's cash burn is not to be confused with the wearable camera firm's pre-IPO profit, though. And at least GoPro gave investors second-class voting rights, not none.

Facebook’s torrid growth turns up heat on Snap

1 Feb 2017

The social network beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines despite concerns business is slowing. The stellar results underscore the grip Facebook has over its nearly 2 bln users. Proving it can overcome such dominance will be rival Snap's big challenge ahead of its IPO.

Line delivers a disappointing status update

26 Jan 2017

Unexpectedly weak results from Japan's top chat app sent its shares crashing. Line outdoes WhatsApp in making money from selling games, stickers and services to users. But sales growth is slowing - and it now looks more reliant on advertising than previously thought.

Snap makes any good-governance pretense disappear

20 Jan 2017

The messaging app whose photos vanish wants to sell only non-voting stock in its upcoming IPO. Facebook and Alphabet waited years to move from dual-class feudalism to such derisive treatment of shareholders. What should be designed to fade away instead is these share structures.

Amazon doormat spat reveals nationalist wild card

12 Jan 2017

An Indian minister threatened to rescind visas of Amazon staff unless its Canadian website halted sales of doormats resembling the country's flag. The doormats quickly vanished, but politicians pandering to jingoist Twitter shaming is a real and rising global business risk.

Facebook and Google will swallow the ad world

27 Dec 2016

The two Silicon Valley titans are expected to account for nearly half the $270 bln budget for digital advertising in 2018. Even China's behemoth, Alibaba, is a distant third. Such dominance makes it harder and harder for starry-eyed startups to build sustainable businesses.

If only Facebook’s faux governance was fake news

8 Dec 2016

A lawsuit accuses director Marc Andreessen of being in cahoots with Mark Zuckerberg over a controversial new class of stock. Though Facebook's founder controls the company, the allegations suggest other shareholders are mostly disregarded. It hoists a red flag even higher.