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. 

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...