Did Facebook's Efforts To Copy Snapchat Backfire?
When Facebook reached 1 billion users in 2012, Mark Zuckerberg had allegedly sent a little red book to every employee who was with the company. The book that was given out, titled Facebook Was Not Originally Created to Be a Company, had detailed the company vision and its values.
And in that book, it was made clear that those working with the company shouldn't be too afraid to embrace change.
The image above is a scan from that little red book and the quote clearly expresses how Zuckerberg recognizes the potential for startups to become a threat. And one easy way to combat the competition, is to acquire them, which Facebook has done with a number of companies.
They've already bought Instagram and WhatsApp, they also tried to purchase Snapchat but it didn't work out as they had hoped.
Back in 2013 Zuckerberg initially offered to buy Snapchat,...
It's alleged that the deal was for $3 billion and obviously didn't go through. Since that time, it's received much higher valuations for the company, some more than $20 billion. It's also alleged that Google has since made an offer to purchase Snapchat for around $30 billion.
In 2016, Zuckerberg had allegedly told employees at a meeting that they shouldn't be too afraid to copy the competition.
Despite their efforts to try and copy be inspired by what they saw as the best features of their competitors though, they haven't rendered the company obsolete by any means. Snapchat is still regarded as one of Facebook's biggest competitors around. According to technology analysts, both Twitter and Snapchat are expected to see healthy growth in the near-term and that's expected to come at the expense of Facebook.
To try and stay relevant, Snapchat has also been working on some updates. It wasn't that long ago that they unveiled a new redesign for their app. However, many users aren't happy about it. A growing number of them have signed a petition online that was launched, seeking to have the new update removed. Snapchat has since released an official response insisting that they are going to take a look at the complaints that the users have.
One person even tweeted the company and asked Snapchat how many retweets it would take for them to change the design back to the way that it was, their response? 50k. The tweet that asked has now received over 1 million retweets.
Initially, the CEO for Snap, Evan Spiegel, had said that the complaints were validation that they had done the right thing in going with the redesign. But will it really be here to stay? It looks like users continue to put pressure on the Snap team to change things back to the way that things were.
If competitors like Steemit become too big, will Facebook decide to introduce their own token to reward content contributors to their platform? They've already introduced a method of monetization for content producers but it's received a hefty amount of criticism.
Back in 2015, it was estimated that every user on Facebook was generating at least $12.76 in revenue per year.
These are some of the main reasons that users are going to be turning elsewhere to find a social network that works better for them.
Hopefully, it won't be long before they find steemit.
Pics:
benbarry.com/project/facebooks-little-red-book
Diana Quach via Vocativ
via gfycat
pixabay
Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-offered-to-buy-snapchat-for-at-least-30-in-early-2016-insiders-say-2017-8
http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/03/investing/snapchat-market-value/index.html
https://www.wired.com/story/copycat-how-facebook-tried-to-squash-snapchat/
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/21/twitter-snap-will-grow-at-the-expense-of-facebook-analyst-predicts.html
https://www.recode.net/2018/2/17/17022586/facebook-snapchat-poke-clone-mark-zuckerberg-evan-spiegel-billy-gallagher
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/21/snapchat-responds-to-the-change-org-petition-complaining-about-the-apps-redesign/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-15/snap-s-spiegel-defends-redesign-says-celebs-aren-t-your-friends
https://www.recode.net/2018/1/30/16950926/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-bans-crypto-advertising-bitcoin-james-altucher
https://www.recode.net/2017/4/21/15387554/facebook-video-deal-publishers-live-ads
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/25/facebook-money-advertising-revenue-should-you-be-paid
Exactly. The reason I was drawn to Facebook back in 2007 was because, unlike MySpace (its main competitor at the time), Facebook was visually simple and didn't have all the limits and restrictions and spam of MySpace.
And that's now why Steemit is currently more appealing than Facebook 10 years later.
Yea man @doitvoluntarily, i don't log in to my facebook like before, i only check what's important and log out, many more will be "ditching" facebook for steemit in no time.
No one wants to get on social media just for the fun of it, many want to make some dollars while catching fun on their social media platform and this is what steemit stands for.
Facebook isn't acquiring steemit, that i am sure of.
Steemit is going to be populated in no time and will give facebook a run for her money.
It's an interesting psychological effect unfolding. Rather than fear of getting "banned" like a misbehaved child, you have to worry about not getting paid! And so far, the conversation in comments on Steemit seems both more civil and more engaged than on these other sites. That effect alone is worth more than whatever actual payout it may provide.
you sure make me laugh man, i go through comments on steemit once in a while and i can't stop thinking if everyone has now become a changed person. You rarely hear anyone curse here.
Just thinking if there isn't any monetary gain to dropping comments, will the people still be more civil?
We both know the answer my friend. Thanks for your comment.
For sure! I even find myself going back on a post here and thinking, "eh, I could lose the swear on this one" lol. What is this place???
I've been on Steemit for about 6 weeks now, and have talked to many people about the platform in that time. I singled out many individuals I knew had a knowledge of either crypto or social media, etc. to talk to; and found none of them had heard of Steemit.
I was pretty surprised and made a Facebook post recently asking whom out of my friends were on Steemit. Due to extensive traveling and subcultures, I have over 1500 Facebook friends from all over the world. To my astonishment, I received absolutely zero response on the post.
I really hope the word starts to spread soon. I know the user count has been growing rapidly but I'm still amazed at the amount of people who had never heard of the platform.
Anyways, good article. Interesting tidbit about the book, I had never heard of that before. I think Facebook will eventually crumble and Zuckerberg will take his money and move in another direction before things get too bad for him. But, who knows :)
I'm curious to know what the percentage of the people on Steemit are Americans... Koreans, French, Russians, etc. That'll cut down even further on those who know about it in this country.
As for Zuckerberg... don't be freaked out if he's running for President with Oprah on the Democratic ticket in 2020 (or will that be switched?)
That's a good point. Still, though, I would mention it to people who work in social media professionally and they hadn't heard a word about it. It seemed a little odd to me.
And I forgot about his political plans! Oh boy that will be interesting.
Right? I haven't bothered to mention it to anyone because I know I'll get that blank stare. Even my one friend who's into crypto hadn't heard of it until I mentioned it.
Zuckerberg's a smart guy with a massive ego. He's conquered the business world and he's young. I jokingly say he'll run in 2020 'cause I don't know if he'll be ready. I think he'll make sure his ducks are all lined up before he does it. Of course, Clinton thought she was all lined up and we saw how that turned out.
thanks for sharing, thanks god i am not a fan of Facebook nor snapchat.
I really can't imagine why people still use Facebook. Unfortunately most of the world seem to be somewhat ignorant about the other better options out there.
Facebook is so trash, Cant wait for something new to take its place. I feel it lost it whole purpose like it said in the book they were not intended to be a company, now im totally turned off by all the adds and BS getting forced in our faces
Your posting on the FB assassin! 😉
Facebook needs to get out of its bubble already . People need to stop posting about their life on there and get on steemit , I’m sure they can change their life like many of us did . I hope they get in before the price goes higher and where they won’t be able to buy steem anymore
It will not be long before your premix is fulfilled dear friend / @ doitvoluntarily, today I read a news, where they highlight that steemit is among the 1000 best rated pages in the world.
For a long time, the CEO of Facebook has been worried about the growth of social networks. even if you want to maintain your affiliates you have to start companding for the jobs posted, but for that you have a great job ahead.
Thank you very much dear friend / @ doitvoluntarily for sharing this information
I wish you a great day
Lets hope so, FB is big enough :)
nice work buddy, and thanks have shared about the entire application
facebook is best site in asia.we love facebook.
good post and nice job.
I live in Cambodia, and I'm trying to convert as many of the Khmers as I can. They all use Facebook because they aren't aware of platforms like steemit.
My wife and I only found steemit this month, and don't really have a desire to return to Facebook. The ones that haven't jumped ship already... Eventually will.