Yeah, I don't see it. This is Dot Com Bubble 2.0. Nothing but hype. I don't care how many teenage eyeballs SnapChat has. You don't suddenly become Tencent or LINE or whatever tomorrow's out-of-the-ass comparison will be. SnapChat is going to have an uphill battle moving their users to anything that is not a simple picture transferring app. And they only have so much time left. If there is one thing teenagers do not do, it is use something past its trend expiration date. The fact that SnapChat hasn't been monetized yet probably means it's already too late and they have no clue where they are going with it, other than hoping to get bought out for an even more outrageous sum of money.
The challenge for SnapChat is to shift from novelty and entertainment to utility. Facebook was fun early on, especially when adding friends and reconnecting with old ones that you hadn't talked to in 10+ years. However, it's shifted to more of a utility for sharing photos and keeping loose tabs on family and friends. SnapChat needs to bridge that, and it can enjoy life far beyond a fad.
> SnapChat is going to have an uphill battle moving their users to anything that is not a simple picture transferring app.
SnapChat is kind of being used as a text messaging app already. That's been my observation of young users, and Bryce Roberts mentioned this as well: https://twitter.com/bryce/status/424600001868599296 (not that a VC has a crystal ball, but it summed up my thoughts.). I think older folks have written if off as an Instagram substitute and the young crowd is only interested in it because it's trendy.
