The Competitive Advantage Period: Critical for valuing tech companies

Thought this might be a useful addition to the discussion about "is the tech market in a bubble?"

If you're going to talk about how over/under/fairly valued these companies are, it seems necessary to me to ask questions about their competitive position.

The snapchat valuation seems lofty (and I wouldn't defend it) but I could see it as reasonable if an investor believes that they have a reasonable chance of continuing to cement their competitive advantage. They are stealing market share among youth from facebook, and could extend that into a relatively meaningful and durable business once they begin to advertise.

Note that Facebook has begun effectively monetizing its mobile users: it's possible. This is probably not the right space to launch into some detailed work on Snapchat, but I doubt the valuation is driven by "lol IDK" idiocy on the part of the group backing them.