A popular product doesn't necessarily make for a good business. SurveyMonkey (SVMK +0.00%), with its heaping helping of risks, is no exception. In this segment from Industry Focus: Tech, host Dylan Lewis and Motley Fool contributor Evan Niu outline the bear case for the survey company.
A full transcript follows the video.
This video was recorded on Oct. 5, 2018.
Dylan Lewis: All told, looking at the numbers, there isn't really a lot for me to like here. I think the growth rate is relatively low, given that this is not a profitable business and it's been around for such a long time. Right now, the company trades at roughly a $1.8 billion valuation, which puts them at somewhere between 7-8X sales. That feels a little pricey for the current state of this company.
Evan Niu: Yeah, I don't really see anything that's really inspired me, either. Another risk that's on the horizon there, too, is that SurveyMonkey does name Google specifically as another provider of online surveys. We use Google surveys at The Fool internally. I think that's another risk factor. They also mentioned that 80% of their new paying users come either to the site or through organic search. They don't break that down even further, but there's some portion of their new business coming from organic search that could be at risk if Google, which is obviously a competitor, ever tweaks their search algorithms. I think that's something to keep an eye on, too.
Lewis: There's also the risk of, if you're using the free side of this as your acquisition funnel, and you have someone who does a "good enough" version of what you do as a feature, as part of a larger business, that could really limit the number of people that are coming in at the top of that funnel for you.
Niu: Right, exactly. That might also explain why their growth rates aren't that great. I just don't see where they go from here. It's hard to imagine, what is exciting about this business in 10 years?!
