Podcast Episode 1: Snap, Specs, and Missed Opportunities

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welcome to the podcast. My name is Darren Alfonso. This is episode one. So what's the format gonna be of this podcast? Well, I'm hoping to do two a week. One deep dive on a particular company or technology or concept, and then the second LA-based stories and my reactions.

So today, for this first episode, I'm gonna be talking about Snap. A few weeks ago, Snap hosted a launch event for their specs glasses. I wasn't invited, but that's fine. Maybe next time. Uh, snap was founded in 2011 by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. Bobby Murphy, part Filipino. Shout out to all my fellow Filipinos.

I'm a fan of the company. I like the yellow color scheme. One of their earliest offices was a beach house in Venice. It was right on Ocean Front Walk, [00:01:00] and then they outgrew that. They moved to Santa Monica.

Th-they've al-always had this like we're not social media, stance, in 2024, they had this ad campaign, and they even had a Super Bowl ad called Less Likes, More Love. I like that a lot. I think society's obsession with likes is, is bad for our mental health. Uh, don't forget to like this podcast, by the way.

And so another reason I like them, they didn't sell to Facebook. In 2013, it was highly publicized. They had an offer from Facebook for three billion dollars. But they didn't take it, and they didn't become Facebook's LA office, uh, which is actually a, a pretty common theme for LA tech companies. They start up here and then they get bought out by a big guy from Silicon Valley. So anyway, they're innovators too. Snapchat [00:02:00] created disappearing photos, and I know what that's known for and I know all what gets... I get it, yes. But regardless, they created disappearing photos, uh, and then they also created 24-hour stories, these, hey, you post up a story, it's there for 24 hours, and then after that it's gone, right? And you just see that, that UI everywhere now,

and getting back to Specs, I was looking at some photos of the Specs, and they've got Los Angeles printed on the inside, which is, which is pretty cool. So they're repping the city.

Now, I've tried out the app over the years, but n-not, you know, nothing's really stuck. Uh, when I first downloaded it, I th- I was thinking I should use it to, to talk to my brother, right? I'll send him silly stuff and silly stuff throughout my day.

Uh, but then It was just too much processing going on. Well, is this silly enough to be in Snap or did it graduate to [00:03:00] an iMessage, right?

I liked Snap Maps at the time. When that got introduced, that was cool. Being able to open up a map and see Snaps , that are happening around you. I like it. Not enough to actually be a user, but I like it. Good idea.

At one point, Snap was really trying to sign big publishers, so I remember they had ESPN sign, and they had SportsCenter for Snapchat I just... Nah, no thanks. I don't need a short-form video. If, if I wanna watch SportsCenter, I'll watch SportsCenter. If I wanna watch highlights of a game, I'll just go on YouTube and watch highlights. Just, just nothing's, nothing's really stuck for me every time I try to use the app.

Now, I know what you're saying, "darren, that makes sense. You're not the target demographic." Totally. I agree with you. When I talk to people, it's like, "Well, Snapchat is for, is for young people," right? But [00:04:00] anecdotally, I've got a 10-year-old nephew. He loves Roblox. He plays it on the iPad. He plays it on his desktop PC, right? He's got an iMessage with his little 10-year-old friends, and they're, they're all blue bubbles they do group FaceTime calls. He knows about TikTok. He watches YouTube Shorts, right? So their minimum age on Snapchat is 13, and I don't think in three years he's gonna convert to being one of their users

the stats back that, back up the decline, according to Pew Research, in 2022, 59% of users aged 13 to 17, of people aged 13 to 17 used Snap, 59%. In 2025, it dropped to 55%. Now, the drop 4% or four percentage points is fine, right? But 55%. So the app that we all thought was all over the place for these, for these teenagers is, is only [00:05:00] being used by half, a little over half of them.

Oof, that's a little concerning. TikTok, it stayed flat, but it's at 68%, Instagram at 63% flat. YouTube fell, but YouTube is at 92%. 92% of people aged 13 to 17 use YouTube. So the stats back up that it's not a great story for Snap when it comes to that teenage demographic.

Let's use another stat, the stock price. Yikes. At the peak in August of 2021, Snap closed at $76 and 11 cents a share. This week, it's been hovering around $5. Let me repeat that, from $76 to around $5. No splits, just dropped like a rock. I mean, for transparency, I own 10 shares. I owned a bunch more, but just I had to get out of that. I had to tap out because, uh, it just, [00:06:00] it wasn't doing anything.

Again, I'm, I'm rooting for these guys, right? I'm rooting for them. I really am. I want them to do well. I think I'm getting a little bit of vibes, like Microsoft vibes from Snap. This, well, they're gonna be one of the first to market in a new using-- in a new technology or a new product category, but they're not gonna be the ones to perfect it.

They're not gonna be the ones to take it mainstream. They're not gonna be the ones that, hey, when in five years this, when this technology is used by everybody, Snap is gonna be the one that is associated with it.

I'll give you an example. Short-form videos. In 2013, Vine launched short-form videos, they were the first ones to really get that going, but Twitter shut it down. Boom, opportunity. Creators go to Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and some site called Musical.ly, musical.ly. [00:07:00] Musical.ly becomes TikTok. Rest is history.

In 2018, Snap launched Snap Camera for desktop, during the pandemic, 2020, Zoom and Teams are blowing up, being used by everybody. I remember downloading Snap Camera and, uh, I made myself the Night King from Game of Thrones on Zoom calls. Fun, but Snap can't take advantage of that, and what ends up happening? Zoom and Teams and all the other ones just end up integrating that that technology in. Snap Camera shut down in 2023. Tough.

And then we get to glasses. So Spectacles, Snap Spectacles launched in November of 2016. They had vending machines in Venice. Spectacles 2 releases in 2018. I don't know anyone that, that owns them at this time. They release three, four, five. Now we're on the [00:08:00] sixth iteration, and this time they're just called Specs,

in 2023, Meta releases the Ray-Ban glasses, They're s- they're smart enough to say, "Hey, we're Meta. We're not gonna try to be a fashion company. We are going to partner with somebody that's already got the mind share and knows how to make good-looking glasses," right? And now you see them all over the place.

PO video-- POV videos all over, all over. And I've got, I've got a pair. I know at least a few other people that have, have pairs of these Meta glasses. By the way, shout out to El Ninja. The fruit cutter. Those are my favorite POV videos. Great at cutting fruit.

I've taken a look at specs, and specs are not supposed to just be cameras, it's supposed to be this, this whole AR thing, right? They're $2,195. Admittedly, they, they look better than Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest, whatever the other big [00:09:00] clunky ones are they, they look good for AR glasses, but I don't think I'm gon- I will definitely not be purchasing for $2,195. Snap, I, I hope these things sell like hotcakes. I really do, but I'm not gonna be buying a pair

So to wrap it up, I'm gonna play a little bit of armchair CEO here for Snap because I want them to, to do well. I want them to succeed, right? Because they are the home team.

Snap, if you wanna keep doing the, the glasses thing, go for it. Try to make that leap. Just go for the Black Mirror contact lens implant thing. , If you release that, I'll be, I'll be right there. I would love it if I could put it in a contact lens and record every single thing that I do. Then I wouldn't even have to worry about my memory. So go for the Black Mirror thing.

Second, I'd say try to diversify. I [00:10:00] think you had something there in the pandemic where you could diversify into prosumer or small business, right? So here's my free tip for you. Go buy Quo, Q-U-O. It's business phone software. They've even got the same color, yellow, and just leave them alone. Maybe there's something there where you can kinda get a little bit of a business software arm, and that'll diversify away from the consumer stuff

That's the end of the episode. Went a little faster than I thought. If there's an LA company or story or something that you want me to cover in a future episode, please let me know. Otherwise, have a good one