Following Snap Inc.’s IPO last month, Facebook and Snapchat now compete on another level. Both companies rolled out new features this week to their apps to vie for the attention of their users. In a world where social media connects people to their friends, news, and entertainment, social platforms need to keep adding new features to stay alive.
Snapchat Search
Snapchat introduced a new search feature to its popular app. This addition affects the stories section of Snapchat by allowing users to search to find content that they find relevant. Snapchat uses this move to reach users who want to see a larger variety of content than what they get from the stories feature. People can now view content from an event happening around town, even if none of their “friends” are there. This opens users to snaps that they handpick for themselves. Snapchat innovated in order to compete with Facebook’s similar feature. This helps Snapchat sustain growth following its IPO last month. They recognize that shareholders care about differentiating from competitors in order to stay competitive.
Facebook Steals Stories
In a new update rolled out to its app this week, Facebook implemented its own version of Snapchat’s famous stories feature. Instagram rolled out the same story feature last year and now its parent company, Facebook has followed suit. The Facebook stories follow the same formula as what you see on Snapchat. Users post a video or picture to their story and their friends can view it for 24 hours before it disappears. Sounds familiar, right? Facebook has yet again updated its app to compete with Snapchat’s signature features.
Is Innovation Dead?
Snapchat and Facebook are not the only ones that keep stealing features from each other. Social media channels constantly adopt other company’s creative features in an effort to remain relevant and retain users. At what point will companies stop stealing other’s attributes and start building their own again? For years, social media outlets would compete by differentiating themselves from their competitors through innovative features.. Now they seem to be simply copying each other.
For more information, follow these links:
https://www.facebookstories.com
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