Snapchat

Whether or not Facebook made a good offer to Snapchat, it's ironic that Snapchat rejected a $3B offer and just raised money at a $2B valuation. (http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/05/filing-indicates-snapchat-is-looking-to-raise-54-5m-at-around-a-2b-valuation/) It's still a big chunk of change, but it does make the question of what the Snapchat team was thinking, even more prominent. My guess is that Snapchat thinks that they can grow the way that Facebook did, and that their lack of a revenue model now isn't a big deal. That's their thinking, seen through my eyes. But I think that's ridiculous. Snapchat has a huge user base, but their monetization model can't be simple advertising. When your product disappears after a few seconds, there isn't a lot of residual value of an advertisement. I'm curious to see how this plays out, but it doesn't look likely that Snapchat will live up to its massive expectations. The 2nd tech bubble may be on the horizon...