The outlook for Snapchat: Cloudy with a chance of terrible

We here at the Mashable business section are not stock pickers. We don't offer financial advice, primarily because we have none to offer aside from investing in yourself (

We do, however, think it's worth looking at what the experts have to say, particularly around Snapchat. Everyone's favorite sexy-time-messaging-app-turned-mobile-powerhouse went public Thursday, meaning we are able to buy ourselves a little piece of Evan Spiegel's brainchild.

Let's walk through what the buzz is on Snapchat:

User growth isn't great, which is a big worry

Investing.com Senior Analyst, Clement Thibault notes "In order to thrive, Snap has to continue to innovate as well as pull in more users to its platforms."

Rohit Kulkarni head of research at SharesPost says, "Snap’s user growth is generally slowing down, even in newer geographies outside North America and Western Europe."

Will the olds join Snapchat?

Sure, young people love Snapchat, but if they're going to keep adding users, they'll have to attract older ones as well.

Debbie Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer, thinks Snapchat can attract the olds with the high-quality content it has begun to emphasize: "We expect that more people ages 35+ will start to use the service as it builds out its content offerings. Many publishers and TV networks use Snapchat to distribute exclusive content, and we think this will have more appeal to older generations over time."

It's going to take five years(!) before people understand how to value Snapchat

This one comes from Spiegel himself, telling the Los Angeles Times: “We built our business on creativity ... and we’re going to have to go through an education process for the next five years to explain to people how our users and that creativity creates value.”

Positioning Snapchat as a 'camera company' is smart

From Doug Clinton at Loup Ventures: "By trying to own, or at least influence, the camera layer itself, Snap evolves beyond a social media app into an enabler of communications."

There's major upside in the long run

You might have missed Snap's big initial jump, but if you're willing to wait, Bullpen Capital partner Duncan Davidson sees upside: "SNAP is a stock every portfolio manager needs to own, and park away."

Everybody is kidding themselves at this stock price

We'll let Rob Cox from Reuters Breakingviews take it away. Caution, viciousness ahead: "Investors have effectively just done what no self-respecting person ever should: wear sweatpants in public. With Snap's $3.4 billion initial public offering they have simply given up giving a damn. They handed their money over to an immature company and in the process abrogated their rights to fair treatment, good governance and reasonable valuations. If the $24 billion self-styled "camera company" run by a 26-year-old fails to achieve its ambitions, shareholders have only their capitulated selves to blame."

It's not that hard to copy what Snapchat is doing

Snapchat has said that it needs to keep coming out with cool, new features to stay ahead of competitors. Unfortunately, Facebook and now even Medium have shown they're not shy about blatantly copying Snapchat features.

Jack Kent and Qingzhen (Jessie) Chen of IHS Markit wrote:"Snap’s cool image has helped it grow, but this could also be a risk. If Snap is unable to remain innovative, an emerging next cool app could replace it," they wrote, adding "Another potential threat for Snap is the ability of its competitors to copy its most innovative or appealing features. Often with larger audiences and deeper pockets, Snap’s competitors can afford to develop competing services."

Most investors aren't too excited to buy Snapchat stock

Snap had a great first day, but a survey by Morning Consult found investors weren't too excited to buy shares. They'd rather invest in Facebook, Google or even Twitter.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The risk is simply not worth the upside

Brian Wieser, analyst at Pivotal Research Group, wrote that Snapchat is "significantly overvalued given the likely scale of its long-term opportunity and the risks associated with executing against that opportunity."

It might be the next Twitter

"Snap is a good company, but you need to take a lesson from Twitter" said research analyst Manhattan Venture Partners Santosh Rao. "All the Twitter issues came up later on, and that is what I am worried about with Snap," he added.