Snap's IPO to Be Haunted by Twitter and GoPro

GoPro’s (NASDAQ:GPRO) woes will hopefully not set the stage for Snap’s IPO, as the camera company has gone to great lengths to distance itself from comparisons to GoPro and Twitter, the last big social media public offering.
As quoted in the press release:

In its filing for an initial share sale, the maker of the Snapchat mobile app emphasized that it measures itself by daily active users — a metric that Twitter doesn’t disclose. Snap explained that its users tell stories chronologically, unlike the Twitter timeline, which displays most recent posts first. The younger company also said it plans to focus on developed markets, instead of racing to find users all over the world. Snap calls itself a “camera company,” rather than focusing on its messaging app or media content.
No matter the positioning, Snap’s numbers raise the same questions Twitter’s did. User growth is slowing and losses are mounting, but revenue gains are a bright spot. That’s how Twitter’s financial details looked when it filed to go public in 2013, and the investor concern has never subsided, even after a spate of executive departures made way for new management and initiatives to jump-start user growth. Twitter’s revenue started to slow when advertisers realized that with stagnant user growth, there wasn’t a reason to spend more.

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