Snapchat: Yet Another Valuation-Without-Revenue Company

According to the most recent Social Media report by Nielsen, the time spent on social media networks in the U.S. such as Facebook and Twitter grew 37% over the year from 88 billion minutes in July 2011 to 121 billion minutes in July 2012. The rise is attributed to an increase in the use of mobile devices. In July of last year, time spent by users on social media sites using mobile apps grew 63% over the year. While Facebook may be the leader in social networking, other sites and applications are also seeing stellar growth, at least in terms of the number of users.

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Xoom Files for 2013 IPO

According to the World Bank’s Migration and Development Briefs, the international money transfer market grew 12% annually to $513 billion in 2011 from $234 billion in 2004. The market is expected to grow annually at 7% over the next three years to $685 billion by 2015. The growth of online and mobile banking channels is also helping to steer market growth.

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RIM Banks on BlackBerry 10

According to an IDC report released recently, the global mobile market is estimated to record growth of a mere 1.4% in 2012, which would mark the slowest growth in three years. But within the market, the smartphone segment is growing much faster. The researcher estimates that smartphone shipments will help drive growth in mobile revenues. During the last quarter, smartphone shipment is estimated to have grown 39.5% over the year to 224.5 million. Globally, Android phones remains the leaders with a 68.3% market share, which is projected to shrink to 63.8% by 2016. iOS phones will see marginal improvement, with market share growing from 18.8% in 2012 to 19.1% in 2016.  The Windows Phone is expected to see the most growth, with market share rising from 2.6% in 2012 to 11.4% in 2016. BlackBerry should continue to struggle as its market share slips from 4.7% in 2012 to 4.1% in 2016. But RIM (Nasdaq:RIMM) is trying to reverse that trend with the release of several new BlackBerry phones this year.

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For-Profit Education Industry Falters

During the past year, online education services provider Apollo Group (NASDAQ:APOL) has seen its stock fall more than 67%. Even though the company outperformed market expectations, according to the recent quarterly result announcement, worries about student enrollment continued to pull their stock down as it touched 52-week lows. For-profit education companies enjoyed a boom when the recession first hit as people began to upgrade their skills. But the continued depressed economy, tighter federal norms on educational institutions and student loan financing and reduced consumer spending patterns have hurt the sector. Apollo hasn’t been spared.

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Recently Public Ancestry.com Now Private Again

Analysts estimate that genealogy enthusiasts spend anywhere between $1,000 and $18,000 over a year to discover their roots. In January 2009, the number of people undergoing genetic genealogy testing to determine their roots were 765,000, compared with 650,000 people reportedly undertaking genetic testing as of November 2007. Besides genetic tests, several genealogy research websites are also helping people learn more about their origins.

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Twitter: 2014 IPO or Acquisition by Apple?

Many analysts have been speculating about Twitter’s IPO prospects, and the company itself seems to have toyed with the idea of going public (or not) more than a few times. Last year it even indicated that it will remain an independent company for years to come. But after a few months of silence, the market is again abuzz with news that Twitter may be preparing for an IPO scheduled for 2014. Analysts believe that Twitter’s recent management restructuring may indicate the company’s desire to become public. Last month, Twitter moved Ali Rowghani, CFO, to the COO position. Newly hired Mike Gupta, a former Zynga treasurer, took the CFO position.

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Shutterstock’s IPO Performance

New York–based Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) filed its S-1 earlier this summer and came out with its IPO early last quarter. The company’s offer was received positively by the market, which has not been kind to many new-age digital stocks. Recently, Shutterstock announced the results of its first quarter as a public company. Here is a quick assessment of how it has fared.

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IPO Pool 2013: Rearden Commerce

There is a whole bunch of private companies thriving in the market today and are valued near or above a billion dollars in the private market. Today, we will talk about one of them. Readers may recall, we introduced you to Patrick Grady, CEO of Rearden Commerce while ago. Today, we will revisit Rearden and see how far it has come.

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Could MercadoLibre Be on Amazon’s Shopping List?

Analysts believe that it is not just Brazil, but all of Latin America that is poised for strong economic growth in the coming years. Over the past five years, Latin America’s economic growth has been double that of crisis-ridden Europe and North America. The region’s per capita income is projected to grow by nearly 50% to $13,000-$15,000 by the year 2030.  The additional prosperity is also accompanied by increased technological spending. Market research suggests that less than 40% of the Latin American population accessed the Internet in December of last year, registering growth of 16% over the year, driven by growth in Argentina and Mexico. Compare that with 78.1% use for the United States and 83% for Canada, and the opportunity for e-commerce growth becomes clear.

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Oracle Continues to Build Cloud Portfolio

According to recent analyst reports, cloud computing will be a strong area of growth for technological investments. Gartner projects that software as a service (SaaS) and cloud-based business application services will grow at a compounded rate of 19% over the five-year period between 2011 to 2016 to $32.2 billion. IDC expects enterprise cloud application revenues to grow at a more aggressive pace of 24% annually to $67.3 billion by 2016 from $22.9 billion in 2011. Technology giant Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) is counting on such market growth to accelerate its own performance.

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