With TenCent having the pull that they do in China, I wonder if this could mean Snapchat possibly being unblocked in China soon.<p>The cynical part of me thinks that when a big purchase like this happens, the buyer knows something we don’t.<p>Then again, they bought 5% of Tesla as well this year.
Side note: Tencent means "soaring information" [1] and not "10 cents"<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent</a>
Tencent is pretty good to companies they take in so this is probably great for Snap.<p>For instance in gaming, Tencent bought majority stakes in Riot Game, minority stakes in Epic games who are doing amazing things for the Unreal Engine, Rovio a top mobile publisher (Angry Birds) and a bit of Activision/Blizzard. So far all of those companies benefitted from the partnership.
100% related to the Facebook having an algorithm to blacklist photos based on naked photos of ppl. Snapchat has those already for like 35% of its users or something I'd bet.
Timing with Trump visit seems to suggest that it's one of those deals that make it during the negotiations of economic relations - who infuses who with more cash - yet at the same time make the invetsment as strategic as possible
I'd bet this 12% stake is actually a behind the scenes loan in the form of buying stock. No way would any smart investment company have genuine long term interest in Snapchat at this point. Older people are not using snapchat, and younger people will grow out of it within the next 5-7 years. Snap is still a major short imo, will be under $10 a share in next 6-8 months
This is a really positive development for Snap -- one of their biggest challenges is that while Facebook, WeChat, WhatsApp, LINE, and other social networking apps have been gobbling the newly international user-base, Snap has really stalled, with user growth of only about 10% in the last year in "Rest of world" (non-Asia/Europe). [1] Hopefully Tencent can help them get back on track<p>[1] <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/one-chart-shows-snapchats-user-growth-2017-8" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/one-chart-shows-snapchats-use...</a>