Snapchat has undoubtedly revolutionized camera-based social apps with its episodic nature. When it was first introduced, the concept of a camera that kept photos for only twenty-four hours was relatively new. Today, this idea is more widely known as “ephemeral messaging,” and the digital world has embraced it unreservedly.
For a few years, Snapchat was the darling of social media, especially since it targeted the younger demographic. Facebook, the biggest of all the social giants, was threatened by the attention that this new competitor was getting, so in 2013, its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered to buy the company for $3 billion. Prior to that, in 2012, Facebook had successfully bought Instagram for $1 billion.
Experts agreed that Zuckerberg’s offer was a win-win for both sides. That’s why many were surprised when Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel declined the offer. Spiegel realized his brainchild’s potential, so he set off to capitalize on what Zuckerberg obviously saw as a threat. Almost immediately after the offer’s rejection, however, Facebook released an app called Facebook Poke, which was meant to crush Snapchat. The app failed to gain traction but this did not deter Zuckerberg and his team. The Facebook CEO made it clear when he released Poke that he was determined to get what he wanted however he could.
In mid-2016, Instagram, the new Facebook-owned app, released Stories, a feature that was basically a rip-off of Snapchat. Unlike Poke, Instagram Stories was successful. In fact, some users are now saying that Instagram has made Snapchat better than Snapchat ever could. Indeed, Snapchat is no longer the only one of its kind. Although it’s still steadily growing, it has found its match on Instagram Stories. Now, the marketing landscape is one app too many, and a lot of marketers are wondering which of these two platforms is worth investing on for the long run.