The dotcom bubble burst of the 90s might have scared off some tech investors, but many are still extremely active in the internet space, particularly when it comes to investing in social media. The landscape is changing, but tech is still a highly profitable sector—something with which investors like Stifel Financial Corporation, Andreessen Horowitz, and others are extremely familiar.
When it comes to solid investment advice in the tech world, it’s hard to get any better than veteran Thom Weisel, co-chair of Stifel. With his solid background in Silicon Valley investment banking, Weisel remembers well the last time technology was a booming industry. This time, however, he thinks things are different.
“In a sentence, the big difference is these companies, in many cases, are enormously profitable out of the gate,” he says. “They have great potential, but they have to continue to produce.”
Tech investors—as well as the tech companies themselves—are lucky to have someone like Weisel available as a resource. Thanks to investors like Weisel, tech companies such as Reddit, Facebook, Pinterest, and China’s Weibo are knocking it out of the park.
Reddit, for example, raised $200 million last month and is now valued at $1.8 billion. This round of funding was the largest in the company’s history and included investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. Despite its retro look, Reddit has amassed 300 million monthly visitors. The company intends to use the new funding to redesign the website and dive into video content and video ad revenue.
Pinterest’s latest funding round reached $150 million, leading to a current company valuing of $12.3 billion. The platform has 175 million monthly users who collect images and information related to cooking, designing, travel, and more.
Other recommended social media investments include Facebook, Weibo, and Match Group (the brains behind dating apps like Tinder, Match.com, and OKCupid). According to financial experts at The Motley Fool, these social media companies are worth noting because of their ever-increasing user bases and increasing profitability (mostly due to advertising).
While it may seem on the surface that the latest tech book is another dotcom bubble, in fact, it’s much more based on secure, profitable companies with remarkably positive futures. Investors are taking note and, in addition to supporting these companies with their hard-earned wisdom, they’re also pouring in their hard-earned cash.
