They'll exist, doesn't mean they'll be relevant, or profitable. If I were asked to bet against the stock, I probably would. Everything about their valuation and IPO smells to high heavens.
It's a shame that what started as one of the most private messaging apps around still doesn't use end-to-end encryption and has since been surpassed by many on that front, though.
I would bet that they don't end up completing the terms of the Google contract as signed; and that it would be heavily modified by year 3 of the contract.
One supposes that might seem "obnoxious", to those who were somehow psychologically committed to what... the perpetual existence of America? That ain't me. It seems unlikely that the continent will sink into the ocean anytime in the next five years, however.
Perhaps I could have been clearer, but I didn't say that Alphabet would fail anytime soon anyway. I referred rather to G's habit of discontinuing popular services.
It took Instagram Stories two quarters to catch up to Snapchat's total MAU.