"At the equivalent stage" - I disagree on all examples. It depends on what we are talking about though. I was talking about 3 billion + valuation, not 2 years into company. I'm pretty sure each of the above mentioned companies were pretty successful companies by the time they got to a 3 billion valuation. Obviously there is some inflation over time, but microsoft didn't get to that point until several years after IPO. Pretty sure at that point it was a bit more clear they were going to be able to make money than snapchat.

Now, snapchat can make money, don't get me wrong. They have a lot of eyeballs and it is worth a big number. I just don't think the number is that big to too many people other than Facebook.