It’s that time of the year when you sit with your friends over a glass of beer and chat about your life goals. And when it comes to the social networking space Facebook is clearly acing the game. Yes, we are talking about the same Facebook that was launched by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard friends in 2004, that became an A-lister by joining fortune 500 companies in 2013 and that acquired Instagram in 2013 and WhatsApp in 2014.
Since the time of its inception, Facebook has continually ‘acquired talent’ to strengthen its existing features and added new technologies to its dynamic platform. Its gradual expansion while integrating innovative features and cutting-edge tools has not only increased its popularity among its diverse audience that is spread across the globe but also helped it to become the ultimate social media platform that there is. In the process, Facebook has taken ‘inspiration’ from others out there and absorbed the best of what they have to offer.
Snapchat of all other platforms has created a niche in the social media space by offering features like– disappearing photos and short video stories, that no one else has offered before. Needless to say that instant message sharing app has proven to be a threat to Facebook and its associates, some of which directly compete with Snapchat.
So what does a mammoth like Facebook do to keep its users engaged and competition out of site? It reproduces ‘similar’ features and acquires what it can until there’s nothing left that it doesn’t offer.
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As far as Snapchat is concerned, Facebook has been ruthless in its takedown against Snapchat introducing features like ‘Live Stories’ on Facebook’s native platform and Instagram. And now the social media giant is introducing another feature that will promote Whatsapp from being a social messaging app to..well, an all-rounder. The latest report suggests that Facebook-owned Whatsapp will soon be introducing Snapchat Stories like feature enabling the users to upload photos or videos as a status message that would disappear in 24-hours. The feature is already available on WhatsApp beta for iOS 2.17.4+ and if all goes according to the plan, Android might get lucky soon. Another feature that is likely to hit the home run on Whatsapp would notify users when their contact changes their status. Earlier, Facebook introduced ‘albums’ feature on Instagram enabling its users to share photo albums similar to its website.
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By embedding all the features that Snapchat is offering on all its sister apps, Facebook is ensuring that users never step out of ‘Neverland’ or in this case ‘Facebook-land’, which in turn is a brilliant plan. After all, why would anyone use Snapchat if three different apps offer all the features it has along with a bunch of creative features that it doesn’t have?
The way Facebook is spreading its tentacles around the social media space is pure genius. It’s not just crushing Snapchat but also other apps that might dare to compete against it. As far as Snapchat is concerned, we can only wish it good luck for it has a tough road to traverse in future!
