Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but when it results in the flatterer eating your lunch much of the enjoyment associated with flattery evaporates quickly.
Consider Snapchat, which went public little more than one year ago, in March 2017. It seems every time Snapchat develops a feature for its platform the dominant player in social, Facebook (2.2 billion active daily users worldwide), ‘flatters’ its much younger rival by grabbing the new widget and making it its own on various platforms. For example, first there was Snapchat Stories, which begat Instagram Stories.
While Snapchat technically could bring suit against Facebook, it’s difficult to win this type of case in court, never mind that Facebook has the resources to assemble a legal team larger than several Third World nations.
On May 16 shares of Snapchat parent Snap closed at $10.57, a record low. Coincidence or not that very day Facebook announced Facebook Stories, another feature it flattered, er copied, from Snapchat had 150 million daily active users, prompting Statista’s chart. As you can see, Facebook Stories has grown tremendously and is in line to surpass Snapchat, as both Facebook’s Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status have previously. Facebook acquired mobile-messaging app WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion.
It’s understandable if Snapchat developers have lost interest in flattery.
