The parent company of Snapchat has been secretly working on developing a drone according to sources – New York Times, and Engadget. Enter 2017, tech stocks are at all-time highs and now the boisterous online social network, Snap Inc., joins the ranks.
In October 2016, Snapchat announced their debut sunglasses and their first hardware product by the name of Snapchat Spectacles. Spectacles records video snippets that automatically save to your Snapchat Memories. According to reputable sources, Snap’s secret drone project appears to have started after Snap released its wearable Spectacles in 2016.
“We have incurred operating losses in the past, expect to incur operating losses in the future..” – Snap Inc.
The Snapchat IPO
The “spectacle” company priced its shares at $17 a share, they opened at $24, traded as high as $29 (52 Week High) on Friday March 3, 2017. According to Wall Street analysts, in order for any camera hardware strategy to work or create value for Snap it needs to be profitable, feed into the service’s usage, or create some differentiation. Snap claims to have approximately 150 million daily users on its social platform but despite the overwhelming number of engagements, the company reported half billion dollar a year in losses. We’ve seen many times that exuberant initial prices simply don’t hold. Twitter, Fitbit, and GoPro are three examples of upbeat IPOs that trade below their IPO prices.
Adam Lashinsky, Journalist at Fortune.com told Ace+ Media that he is convinced that we are in the midst of a tech bubble. The over-supply of social media vendors and networking platforms in North America is a good indicator of a tech bubble.
“I have no idea when this game of musical chairs will end and who will be left standing. I just know that it will end.” – Adam Lashinsky
GoPro optimizes operational costs
Late into February 2017, GoPro announced the opening of a new office in Bucharest, Romania that will focus on software engineering, including the development of its web and eCommerce platforms. This expansion will help GoPro tap into the area’s diverse engineering talent pool and create up to one hundred jobs in Bucharest in 2017. GoPro Bucharest officially opened on March 1 2017.
“The area is rich with diverse talent from prestigious colleges and universities, as well as Fortune 500 technology companies. We have the opportunity to leverage this talent and consolidate our outsourced software and IT contractors into one centrally-located, highly efficient team.” – CJ Prober, Chief Operating Officer of GoPro.
To help accelerate hiring and streamline operations in the new office, GoPro appointed Ioan Barbulescu as General Manager of GoPro Bucharest, and the team will report to Joe Bentley.
GoPro is more than Snapchat
Days prior to the opening of the Bucharest office, GoPro announced a partnership with Huawei Consumer Business Group in which GoPro’s Quik mobile video editing app will come integrated within the photo Gallery on Huawei devices, including the new HUAWEI P10 and HUAWEI P10 Plus smartphones. Ultimately, GoPro’s apps will be serving as the primary video editing solution on Huawei’s latest devices. This is just an example of the types of collaborations happening in the forefront of GoPro’s business expansion models and cross platform integration strategies.
In 2016, Quik was downloaded 12 millions times and users shared more than 27 million videos. Subsequently, the mobile app received numerous accolades, including from TIME magazine and Fast Company magazine, and was selected as one of the Best Apps of 2016 by Google Play.
