Today in the Bay Area

[Homebrewer]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco's city attorney issued a cease-and-desist demand Monday to a mobile app called Monkey Parking, which allows people to auction off public parking spaces that they're using to other nearby drivers.

 

 

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/San-Francisco-warns-Monkey-to-stop-selling-spots-5572782.php

[Tank]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco's city attorney issued a cease-and-desist demand Monday to a mobile app called Monkey Parking, which allows people to auction off public parking spaces that they're using to other nearby drivers.

 

 

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/San-Francisco-warns-Monkey-to-stop-selling-spots-5572782.php

 

that's because he didn't think of it first.

[mrwicked]

Snapchat (now dubbed Snap) went public today.

Popped at 44% (always expected). Current valuation of $28 billion.

Pretty amazing result for zero innovation / intellectual property sexting app with filters. All they have proven is their ability to lose money, but VCs love teenage eyeballs. This is even after Facebook copied "stories" which put a huge anchor on their growth in short period of time. Plus if you buy shares, you get 0 voting rights. First time that's ever happened at IPO. You are banking on the leadership of the CEO bro schmuck to get your return - not a risk I would take.

Hopefully the wave continues. Go Go tech companies. 

https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/02/snapchat-stock-finishes-up-44-on-first-day/

[gotbeer]

On 6/23/2014 at 3:14 PM, Homebrewer said:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco's city attorney issued a cease-and-desist demand Monday to a mobile app called Monkey Parking, which allows people to auction off public parking spaces that they're using to other nearby drivers.

 

 

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/San-Francisco-warns-Monkey-to-stop-selling-spots-5572782.php

They must have taken it down already due to hurt feelings.  But I wonder what laws were broken?  There are a few, ok, many places in the LA basin that would benefit also.

[wopphil]

What happened with Gopro? You guys were saying it was a great company a few years ago...what happened with its value?

[AngelsLakersFan]

16 hours ago, wopphil said:

What happened with Gopro? You guys were saying it was a great company a few years ago...what happened with its value?

I think the problem is that no one needs a GoPro.

[mrwicked]

Man GoPro fell off a cliff on a legendary scale. They rode high on hype and fantastic marketing. 

But that couldn't sustain them forever.

 

[Angel Dog and Beer]

Market saturation too. Seems like they exhausted every single "extreme" sport outlet.

[mrwicked]

lol uber.

total and complete meltdown, from a $70,000,000,000 tower. 

they are going to be a case study for future business schools if they fully implode. 

not just legendary corporate toxicity, but if the google/waymo lawsuit puts an injunction on their autonomous cars work, they are doomed. 

[red321]

their business model is not sustainable...you can't subside on a model that requires your investors to subsidize a significant portion of your customers ride....something like 2 billion/year of their investment dollars go to keep their ride costs down

https://news.fastcompany.com/investors-are-paying-2-billion-per-year-to-subsidize-your-uber-ride-4026256

[mrwicked]

47 minutes ago, red321 said:

their business model is not sustainable...you can't subside on a model that requires your investors to subsidize a significant portion of your customers ride....something like 2 billion/year of their investment dollars go to keep their ride costs down

https://news.fastcompany.com/investors-are-paying-2-billion-per-year-to-subsidize-your-uber-ride-4026256

Yeah, they are really good as spending/losing money.

But remember the current setup is not their business model - they are around solely for the purpose of crushing competitors while they build up autonomous driving technology. It is the amazon model. Every penny that goes into uber is expecting returns on future revenue from driverless cars. It's a comically expensive bet to make. 

Uber as a company doesn't care about the drivers at all. They are just using them. 

But, if they grant google an injunction on the stolen autonomous tech.. poof.

[red321]

I get that...just don't see how survive losing 2 billion a year until that technology is feasible. Like you said...comically expensive bet to make.

[AngelsLakersFan]

23 minutes ago, mrwicked said:

Yeah, they are really good as spending/losing money.

But remember the current setup is not their business model - they are around solely for the purpose of crushing competitors while they build up autonomous driving technology. It is the amazon model. Every penny that goes into uber is expecting returns on future revenue from driverless cars. It's a comically expensive bet to make. 

Uber as a company doesn't care about the drivers at all. They are just using them. 

But, if they grant google an injunction on the stolen autonomous tech.. poof.

It's funny because a lot of companies are just 'using people' but uber thinks their shit doesn't stink and they can actually say it.

I would not be surprised to see some third party jump in once autonomous cars are ready and just crush uber. A lot of people are working on the technology, even if uber has it first they won't be the only guys out there.

[mrwicked]

Tesla is ahead of everyone at this point. My $$ is on them.

AAPL is pumping money into it as well. Lots of companies don't like Uber, and will gladly join forces to stomp them.

Should be interesting.

Again, the fact that they are getting sued for Levandowski stealing from GOOG (in a comically clear cut case, I mean the guy is supposed to be brilliant but what a moron) means they autonomous driving tech might get shut down. And if that happens they are dead.

[Brandon]

yeah, hard to not see tech news without seeing another article about travis fucking up. that shit went downhill quick.

 

side note sf story:

having drinks with buddies for the finals game last night. one of the dudes is a new guy i've never met. russian dude that lived in sf for a couple years. the way he talks and comprehends things, you can see a slight context disconnect....which makes the story way funnier, but won't come across typing on a message board. so the dude is living in sf and is some kind of high level engineer making good money so he tells us he decides to start looking for a home there. no understanding of the housing climate, market conditions, etc. he just gives a realtor some suggestions like 3 bedroom, sqft size, and whatnot. realtor goes and looks and comes back with a perfect home that fits the criteria he gave. dude is totally sold on it and loves the place. realtor then says, "sweet, they actually just dropped the price to 4.8 million". the dude said he about shit himself in disbelief and had to go through the awkward convo of it being out of his price range.

[ten ocho recon scout]

On 3/3/2017 at 2:07 PM, AngelsLakersFan said:

I think the problem is that no one needs a GoPro.

Lies! 

I love my gopro....but i do a lot of crazy stuff on my weekends. For the average person, true, its just a novelty.

[mrwicked]

lol @ snap.

what a disaster. down what, 70% since IPO? IPO'd at $30/share, founders each got nice $700m bonus for that. now barely hovering above $10/share.

employees still under lock up so can't sell.

the vast majority are underwater anyways so it's worthless except for the few early people and investors.

what a nightmare.

[Stradling]

5 hours ago, mrwicked said:

lol @ snap.

what a disaster. down what, 70% since IPO? IPO'd at $30/share, founders each got nice $700m bonus for that. now barely hovering above $10/share.

employees still under lock up so can't sell.

the vast majority are underwater anyways so it's worthless except for the few early people and investors.

what a nightmare.

Sooo, good time to buy?

[Vegas Halo Fan]

On 3/2/2017 at 5:13 PM, mrwicked said:

All they have proven is their ability to lose money, but VCs love teenage eyeballs.

Many companies have yet to figure out that while they are foaming at the mouth in their endless pursuit of the 18-24 age group, it is those of us who are considerably older who have disposable income. Apparently to them we are all computer-illiterate, hopelessly-stranded-in-the-past relics with rabbit ears on our black-and-white televisions, rotary dial phones and 20-year-old Ford Crown Victorias who never aspire to have anything better.

[mrwicked]

17 hours ago, Stradling said:

Sooo, good time to buy?

It's not a terrible idea. I mean there is a lot of $$ muscle behind the scenes that will want to prop them up and at least get their money back. Plus the vast majority being underwater with their stock, means they will start to jump ship. Not terrible idea to buy now and just see what happens. But I'm not, those social tech stocks (and the underlying teen demographic) are too volatile for my taste. 

[Brandon]

we invest in real money makers, like 20 year old ford crown victoria's.

$$$$$$$$$ 

[Jay]

53 percent of Californians want to leave the state, according to new survey

https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san-francisco/article/move-out-of-bay-area-california-where-to-go-cost-13614119.php

It appears the housing and homelessness crises have led to a pessimistic outlook: 62 percent of those surveyed say the best days of living in California are behind them.

[Blarg]

Yes, California's glory years have long passed like the 6% sales tax. 

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

I believe it.  I like how Newsom is suing HB over their amount of low income housing but plenty of other cities that don't meet the threshold aren't being sued.  HB however fought back against being a sanctuary city so no surprise why they got targeted.  I'd bet there's no low income housing near Newsom's 3M+ house.  If it wasn't for family I'd be getting out of this state.

[Tank]

we're a welfare state. the good that exists here (aerospace, film & tv, art, music, food production, sports, weather) is getting overwhelmed by catering to illegals, raising taxes on pretty much anything and everything, and doing things that keep power for those who currently have it. once i'm on a fixed income, i can't really see how i'll be able to afford to live here, and that will be a pathetically sad day.

without a change in the philosophy of how this state is governed, it's only going to get worse. it'll be like the santa ana river homeless camp, but statewide.