Alex Hern, writing for The Guardian: Over the past year, Facebook has shown an almost monomaniacal dedication to taking on Snapchat by importing its defining features wholesale into the company’s own apps. Facebook Live has “masks” now (think Snapchat’s Lenses). Instagram has geostickers (like Snapchat’s location-aware stickers.) WhatsApp has “Status” (think Snapchat Stories). Instagram has “Stories” (think … Snapchat stories). The latest fruit of Facebook’s labours is Messenger Day — “a way for you to share these photos and videos — as they happen — by adding to your Messenger Day, where many of your friends can view and reply to them”. It’s Snapchat Stories. Again. […] Facebook has seen potential threats on the horizon before, but its chequebook has always been enough to ward off real danger: that’s why it bought Instagram, that’s why it bought WhatsApp, and that’s why it tried to buy Snapchat. But it couldn’t get the company’s fiercely independent co-founder, Evan Spiegel, to sell. And now it’s in uncharted waters, with a competitor stealing advertising revenue, desirable millennial users, and industry credibility, and with no obvious way to reverse that trend. Facebook’s time at the top probably isn’t up. But its self-respect deficit is going to take years to pay off.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
https://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discuss&id=10349007&smallembed=1