Comment by yapyap

2 days ago

[flagged]

Madman seems better than a con-man. All those satellites for an unnecessary service that could never become profitable...

Is this the node_modules/js ecosystem for space? 7k+ satellites for a service that Viasat and others can do with ~10. Supposedly Starlink has better ping, but as it's still unusable for gaming, it doesn't appear nearly as beneficial.

  • Leaked internal documents show that last year, Starlink made $72M net income on $2.7B in revenue.[1] Their revenue growth rate is ≈90% year over year. They're spending most of that on expansion (paying SpaceX for more launches, manufacturing more/better satellites, and manufacturing terminals). If they wanted to, they could scale back these expenditures and rake in the money. But long-term, they stand to gain more if they spend their revenues on ways to grow their business. Their customer base has increased by 30% since those financial statements came out, so their finances are most likely in even better shape now.

    For comparison, last year Viasat had $4.3B in revenue and lost $1B. This year their revenue has been flat. They lost revenue in communication services (probably from Starlink) and gained revenue in military contracts.[2]

    1. https://www.scribd.com/document/886692980/GI-2139325374

    2. https://investors.viasat.com/static-files/c89c3424-4ad3-4fe2...