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Comment by hackernewds | Hacker News Reader

why are these companies worth so much, if not for sneakily monetizing and selling their user's most personal data?

in some cases the value doesn't really exist. if someone owns 75% of a company from the founding, and they sell 25% for $100000 then its worth $400000 in a valuation whether the starting capital was $1000000 or $1

selling the smallest amount of share possible for the highest amount you can get can easily balloon the "paper" value of a company, but that money doesn't really exist anywhere.

it will change when things go public, but often the initial price is based on some vapourous guess like this...

The plan was always that DNA could be use for medical research, which is enormously valuable.

And given that 23andme currently has a market cap 1/20th DJT (Trump Media & Technology Group Corp) -- a firm that makes less revenue than a variety store yet has huge losses -- I wouldn't really say it's "worth so much".

I wouldn’t compare any stock to DJT. MAGA voters value signaling, institutional investors playing games, foreign governments laundering money to the campaign, primary shareholder prepping for exit.

The companies actual revenue has zero impact and never will. Treat DJT like a NFT and it makes a ton of sense.

> wouldn’t compare any stock to DJT. MAGA voters value signaling, institutional investors playing games, foreign governments laundering money to the campaign, primary shareholder prepping for exit

You’re right for the wrong reasons. (EDIT: I'm wrong for no reason.)

Dow Jones is obsolete [1]. Its value is in its brand, i.e. other people look at it.

The other factors you mention are noise. Relevant to a trader or market maker with infintessimal time horizons. But irrelevant to an investor thinking even in months. The American markets are simply too deep. The totality of dollars at work by MAGA voters, game-playing hedge funds and money launderers--through the stock market--is negligible. (Lots of political tea-leave reading funds have been attempted. Zero prevail.)

[1] https://retirementresearcher.com/why-the-dow-doesnt-work/

> NASDAQ: DJT

> Trump Media & Technology Group Corp

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DJT/

Ha! Wow. Yes. Thank you.

I thought DJT is just a huge foreign influence campaign to get financial leverage over the "future US president". Can't compare the two.

> The plan was always that DNA could be use for medical research, which is enormously valuable.

Couldn't one just pull a worldcoin and give people $5 for a cheek swab?

Ask not how it can be used, but rather how it will be misused, generating various profits for owners of the data down the line. So far targeted ad business takes the cake, I'd expect DNA profiling and corresponding credit/social score, insurance premiums and recruiting score coming eventually.

I can't believe how people can be naive over and over.

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