[threeseed]

I'm amazed SpaceX is valued so highly.

SpaceX is in an industry with better financed/politically connected companies and an unpredictable revenue stream. It's a risky business by every definition. WhatsApp by comparison is a stable, very popular, growing and strategically important messaging platform.

And if you think that human-human communication is less valuable than putting a few satellites in space (NASA/ESA/ISRO/etc are the real keys to future space exploration) then I would argue your priorities are a bit warped.

[josteink]

WhatsApp by comparison is a stable, very popular, growing and strategically important messaging platform.

I'd rather phrase that as "WhatsApp by comparison is a currently stable, currently popular and growing generic platform implementable and implemented by thousands of companies and hobbyyists worldwide with nothing unique about the company except the current user-base, a (mostly free-loading) user-base which has shown great willingness to flock to the next great thing should this service ever do the wrong moves".

You know... The sort of statement you don't make about 20 billion dollar companies. They should have a more solid footing than being trendy right now. To put it in the dryset terms possible: They have no unique value-proposition.

SpaceX is doing real shit which might make an impact on the future of mankind. To me just comparing them in the same context seems offensive.

[threeseed]

Have you never heard of network effect ? Having one the size of WhatsApp is absolutely a unique value proposition since it is impossible to replicate due to acquisition costs.

SpaceX is making something physical no doubt. But they aren't the only one and their competitors aren't cute little garage startups.

[adwn]

> Have you never heard of network effect ? Having one the size of WhatsApp is absolutely a unique value proposition since it is impossible to replicate due to acquisition costs.

In 2005, one could have made the same argument about Myspace.

[TeMPOraL]

Yup. It's totally possible to replicate the "value proposition" of a network-effect-exploiting service - the easiest way is to just wait a single generation. Younger people tend to avoid things their parents use; it's a problem that Facebook is starting to have right now.

[rplnt]

WhatsApp (and similar) will never make any of the invested money back though. Its value is purely in chance that it will grow and someone else will buy you out in a few months or years. Its only valuable asset are users, and they will be gone. So someone at the end of long chain on of rich people will weep.

With SpaceX, there is enormous value in the company as it is, even if it went bankrupt tomorrow.

[TeMPOraL]

> (NASA/ESA/ISRO/etc are the real keys to future space exploration)

Now are they? NASA itself now outsourcing its LEO capacity to SpaceX. And SpaceX is much more focused than government agencies thanks to virtue of having a single leader with an idea, as opposed to bureaucracy and CYA-ism. Of course, space exploration is not a one-man endeavour, but I wouldn't dismiss the impact SpaceX already has and likely will have in the future - they're empowering those big space agencies.

[trhway]

>And if you think that human-human communication is less valuable than putting a few satellites in space (NASA/ESA/ISRO/etc are the real keys to future space exploration) then I would argue your priorities are a bit warped.

that is exactly bifurcation point each technological civilization faces (be it whole human race today or China 600 years ago) - to "go in", i.e. collapse into something like ant-colony or to "go out", i.e. explore and expand.