[ObserverNeutral]

> That's a problem. The average person on the street has likely never even heard of Blue Origin, or know what they do, while they most likely have some idea of what SpaceX is and does. There is a tangible excitement about SpaceX.

Why is this a problem? There is only one reason in business why you'd want to grab the attention of the average person...and that is advertising .

Will SpaceX start advertising during launches? Maybe...up until then being known to the average person is not an advantage.

Some people claim going public would enable SpaceX to cash in on its fame by offloading loads of stock to the aforementioned normies...but that practice scares away smart/value money so again...until SpaceX starts advertising during launches the only person benefiting from the social media fanfare is Musk who gets to be invited on SNL to show how socially akward he is.

[cronix]

It's a problem contributing to Bezos' enviousness that the article was talking about. SpaceX gets all of the glory because they are actually doing things, so they are in the news and building brand recognition (for free!!). Hardly anyone has even heard of Blue Origin except mostly for people who already had an interest and seek it out. How many times has Blue Origin made it to the front page of HN vs SpaceX, which is a niche news site of higher-than-average technical readers?

> Will SpaceX start advertising during launches? Maybe...up until then being known to the average person is not an advantage.

Each time SpaceX is talked about, it's effectively a free advertisement for SpaceX. Look at all the talk about StarLink. Have you seen any paid ads? They don't need to, because they have been building their brand recognition for free with every launch for several years and people are excited about it and talk about it. Bezos company just does not have the same caché.

[ObserverNeutral]

SpaceX doesn't sell to the public, it doesn't have normie consumers who make purchasing decisions based on brand, at least not as yet.

That can change when they start selling their internet services, but again up to now all the promotional energies to build a brand have not been monetized.

The Free Advertisement and brand rising that you mentioned is only valuable if you monetize upon it. As of NOW the only way they have to monetize is selling advertising space during launches and I suppose they get the ads on Youtube as well.

[cronix]

You can buy Starlink right now if you live in parts of the northern US or parts of Canada. They're expanding constantly. I've have one for a few months now and love it. Interest was so great they asked the FCC to expand licensing to 5M people. Search "starlink review" on youtube for many examples.

> "Despite the fact that SpaceX has yet to formally advertise this system's services, nearly 700,000 individuals represented in all 50 states signed up over a matter of just days to register their interest in said services at www.starlink.com. To ensure that SpaceX is able to accommodate the apparent demand for its broadband Internet access service, SpaceX Services requests a substantial increase in the number of authorized units."[1]

700k signups is pretty good for no advertising.

[1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/space...

Linus Tech Tips review on Starlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh1a2K9ZgNA

[yencabulator]

For what it's worth, Starlink is fulfilling beta orders in Arizona, New Mexico, and continental Europe, so it's much more than "northern US" by now.

[kortilla]

> Some people claim going public would enable SpaceX to cash in on its fame by offloading loads of stock to the aforementioned normies...but that practice scares away smart/value money so again...

This is the worst kind of investor to have. Not having them is a good thing. Look at Tesla

[dwaltrip]

It’s a big benefit for recruiting.