What3Words Investment

FrankL57

Hi, is it worth investing in What3Words?

I can find little or no data about possible returns!

Any advice appreciated.

TimSynths

Investing in a single company is always risky, if you are having to ask on a forum.......

Keep it simple, low cost global tracker index fund.

TadleyBaggie

No.From.me

dealyboy

And it's a no from me.

I think it's niche. Although I have had the app since 3 years ago, I have seen very little commercial usage.

boingy

TadleyBaggie said:

No.From.me

I was so desperate for that to be a valid w3w location but the closest I found was
///note.from.same
Falmouth, in case you were wondering

Investing in any online company tends to be a punt rather than an educated investment. It's really hard to value them in the conventional sense. They tend to be funded by a large pile of cash that they burn through and then seek to replenish with promises of jam tomorrow. And the internet is fickle. All it needs is one controversy or viral campaign to make a brand almost worthless. 

Brie

personally I think they need the money to fund their TV campaign.  I can't see where they would make money other than from advertising on their website.  But it's not like people will linger on there so the ads won't generate the sort of ££ as FB or other sites might get.

Flugelhorn

the only way that they are going to make £££ is if the w3w becomes as universal as a postcode / zipcode and they charge for the use of the database

Malthusian

Flugelhorn said:

the only way that they are going to make £££ is if the w3w becomes as universal as a postcode / zipcode and they charge for the use of the database

From idle research I found there are numerous "joke" versions of W3W like What3Emojis, What3Birds, What3****s and What3GodspeedYou!BlackEmperorSongTitles. (I may have made the last one up, but you are welcome to go to my CrowdCrap page and invest all your money in it.)
Which puts a ceiling on how much £££ they can make from it if anyone can easily copy the concept and undercut W3W. 

wmb194

I'm impressed that despite it being around for years it has very little revenue, loses lots of money but is apparently still able to find new funding. I'm sure it's 2023/24 when things really turn around. /s 

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08430008/filing-history

someone

Their entire intellectual property was seeded with flawed words making unfit for purpose. Plurals and homophones are allocated too close together despite their earlier claims they would be very far apart. Fixing the problem is too unpleasant (they have to void their existing map and start again) so instead they kind of just gloss over the flaw.

I'm imagine it will plod along until some critical event ends up winding the company up. And by god that P&L is rather shocking, they are spending £3.9million/month to bring in just £70k/month in turn over. Are they shovelling bank notes into a furnace or something?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56901363

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49754820

https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-suitable-for-safety-critical-applications/

Eyeful

FrankL57: 

1. You met a man in a pub who wants you to invest in this single company, of which little or no data about possible returns could be found. 

2. Someone phones  or emails you, wanting you to invest in this single company, of which little or no data about possible returns could be found. 

3. A stranger on social media or YouTube tells to invest in this single company, of which little or no data about possible returns could be found. 

Would you invest in any of the above situations? You know the answer to that I think.

Do you really need anyone to tell you, if you invest in single company you are taking a large risk with your money. If that company folds, you lose all your money.

If you invest in a  S&P 500 index tracker or a FTSE All World ETF there is little risk of loosing all money.