Follow Facebooks lead in ivesting trends. Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) bought WhatsApp for $1.9 billion in 2014, when it had less than 500,000 users. The messaging app announced in a Feb 12th blog post “We are excited to share that, as of today, WhatsApp supports more than two billion users around the world.” If the per user value is the same as when FB bought WhatsApp, that means it is now worth approximately $81.7 Billion. That’s about the same market cap as Cigna Health and it’s bigger than Caterpillar Inc. NYSE: CAT and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (NYSE: SNP). It’s also an insane 4,200% increase on their original investment in 6 years. A division of a social media company that provides texting and doesn’t charge anything is worth more than Caterpillar. That’s what modern investing is all about. Your personal data is worth more than anything and you should guard it.
Is This the Stock Market?
In 1881 William doc Carver came up with an idea to attract people to his Wild West shows, Although the idea was sort of forced on him. While traveling through Nebraska he was on a bridge that collapsed, and he fell into the Platte River along with his horse. He and the horse survived, and his idea was born. First done in Kansas City Mo. In 1884, people would come from miles around to watch horses go up a fairly steep ramp and then come down a steeply sloped balcony before falling headfirst into the water with the rider on their back. Look at an S&P 500 or a Dow or a NASDAQ chart. Put up a monthly chart and go back 30 years period you’ll see several scenes that look exactly like the picture above. Given where markets are now, I’d say we’re right at above the diving horse sign in this picture. Keep an eye out for that steep sloped balcony.
Creepy ‘coronavirus-screening’ robot in Times Square
If you’re worried about coronavirus, now called COVID-19 then you might want to take a trip to Times Square in New York where a creepy robot is giving free virus screenings. It’s pretty ridiculous when you think about it , since all it really is an iPad touch screen with moving arms and a goofy 1980s robot face, but the questionnaire that it uses on the iPod is pretty much the same Questions a doctor would ask you before actually running tests for the virus, like “have you had a fever in the last 3 days” . You go through the questionnaire and if you answer in a “virus-ie” the way, the robot responds, “you should go see a doctor.” Should they really be using a touch screen to test for a highly contagious virus? They should probably have another robot with anti-bacterial wipes following this one around.
A Nice LYFT
Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) reported fourth-quarter results that beat expectations, getting above $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in it’s history. Lift shares fell hard though, since the company kept its timeline for turning a profit the same. The market was hoping with $1 billion in revenue, they would figure out a way turn a profit sooner, but no luck even with rider numbers growing more than expected. Shares were down over 9.5% at one point in the day. It was really Uber’s (NYSE:UBER) report that caused this problem for LYFT. Uber and JYFT both beat on revenue and also trimmed their losses for the quarter by quite a bit, but Uber was optimistic about when it will turn a profit. They pulled forward that profitability target date buy a full year. Uber stock has been rising ever since, which leads us to believe that LYFT might be the better buy. It’s likely that Uber misses that target day, and if they do the honesty of lifts report will give that stock some strength. The ultimate really reality is comma the winner is the one that gets to autonomous driving first. Period.
One more thing…
I wish we could buy stock in stupid plastic surgery. Oli London of the UK recently spent over $100,000 and 5 years to make himself look like a K-pop star. If you don’t know, K-pop is a form of Korean pop music where human beings look like brightly colored cartoons. Mr. London is particularly obsessed with Jimin from Korean boyband BTS. Looking at the finished product I would say close, but no Korean cigar. Just for comparison sake, $100,000 invested in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) 5 years ago would be worth over $253,000 right now. I think I have a better idea. I wish there was a way to short people’s sanity rather than buy stock in their plastic surgery. Oli here, is going to $0.