Social Media

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.

Facebook follows blue-chip playbook for stumbles

21 Nov 2016

The $340 bln social network launched a $6 bln buyback program as it wrestles with more ad-metric flubs, a fake-news problem and a slowing top line. Though Facebook can afford it, the timing suggests Mark Zuckerberg is addressing disruptive matters with old-school maneuvers.

Fake-news vortex envelops Corporate America

18 Nov 2016

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is no longer alone with the problem. In the days after the U.S. election, New Balance, Pepsi and Ford have been caught out by the spread of bogus information. Donald Trump's willingness to distort the truth creates a boardroom risk that is all too real.

Viewsroom: Should Facebook root out fake news?

17 Nov 2016

The social network is under fire for allowing erroneous and downright misleading media reports on its platform that may have swayed the U.S. presidential election. Meanwhile, Canada and Mexico prepare for a Donald Trump presidency. And Warren Buffett eats his words on airlines.

Facebook faces its own fake-news Twitter problem

14 Nov 2016

Mark Zuckerberg denies the social network helped elect Donald Trump because of made-up articles. Yet Facebook regularly boasts to advertisers about its influence over nearly 2 bln users. Like toxic tweets, allowing hoaxes to flourish has the potential to dent its business model.