The big con: How tech companies made a killing by fudging their numbers

In May 2015, Snapchat cofounder Evan Spiegel sat onstage at a tech event and said his app was "approaching" 100 million daily active users in developed markets. 

He was wrong — or, well, he exaggerated. In June 2015, Snapchat averaged 89 million daily active users overall, per Snap's S-1 filingHeadlines at that time said otherwise. 

SEE ALSO: San Francisco was the place to be for people in tech. Then it wasn't.

Spiegel, in the midst of getting grilled by reporters Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, was answering the same question posed to every tech company: How are your numbers? 

Silicon Valley was built on metrics: users, time spent, pictures uploaded, etc. These numbers made even young startups look like they could conquer the world and make billions of dollars along the way. Read more...

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