For a time, of all the tech companies that have gone public in years past none has ever come close to the initial public offering of "the" social network Facebook, which topped at a massive $104 billion in 2012. Almost five years later, one plucky tech firm running a certain phone camera app that was famous for never keeping any pictures it took and deleting them eventually is going to get the closest towards FB's IPO from long ago. That's right, Snapchat through its parent company Snap Inc. is going public and filed for its own IPO, the first one this 2017 for a major tech firm.
And they are indeed, with having opened their international HQ in London and all.
A ‘camera company’ on the NYSE
Okay, it still looks kind of puny compared to the 104 billion Facebook IPO, but Snap Inc. is going for $3 billion on the New York Stock Exchange all the same, trading under the ticker symbol “SNAP.” What’s more, Snap Inc. is describing itself in their SEC S-1 filing to be a “camera company”, something different from their usual label as an image and multimedia messaging mobile app. The blurb on the filing has it that Snapchat’s company sees the way their app “reinvented the camera” and hopes to further better people’s means of communication through their service. "Our products empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together," they added.
Other than their IPO, Snap Inc.’s S-1 also listed down facts and figures concerning the firm’s current condition. They state that the Snapchat app has some 158 million users logging in everyday and in any single day about 2.5 billion photos are taken on the app and shared around the world. It’s all well and good, but the negative portions of the report have it that Snap Inc.
has also been losing money, estimated $514.6 million in 2016. That’s an increase from their 2015 losses of $373 million while their predominantly-advertising derived revenue is more than $400 million.
Loyal users with a mind to invest
Fortunately Snap Inc. has a great strength to call upon: its user base. The S-1 filing lists figures indicating the relative young age of Snapchat users.
While those who are aged 25 and above went on the app an average of 12 times a day and stayed busy for around 20 minutes, users below that age went on the app more frequently at 20 times and used it for a half-hour or so. In fact, Snapchat is looking at the possibility of presenting their company to their users who are of college age as the perfect first investment at reasonable share prices. Time will tell if the offer will take. At least this makes for more meaty Snapchat-related news aside from Bachelor Nick Viall reportedly spoiling his final choice by accident on the platform.
