Snapchat announced it’s changing the name of its Spotlight short-form video feed to Reals, where people can share their real selves.
But not really.
Snapchat’s April Fool’s Day name change is a joke that expands on CEO Evan Spiegel’s poking of Meta, and his insinuations that Meta stole the feature ideas from Snap.
Spiegel has repeatedly said that Meta copies Snap, even adding VP of Product @ Meta to the About section of his LinkedIn profile in order to underline the criticism.
The rivalry stems back to 2013, when the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta offered $3 billion to acquire a then-rising Snapchat app, just a year after buying Instagram. The Wall Street Journal said a confident Evan Spiegel rejected Meta’s advances, though after meeting with Zuckerberg in person and deciding not to take him up on his offer, Spiegel said Zuckerberg seemed to take the rejection personally.
As Spiegel explained to Business Insider in 2014, Zuckerberg suggested that Meta would “crush” Snapchat if Spiegel rejected Meta’s acquisition offer. Spiegel rejected it anyway, and shortly after, Meta launched “Poke,” a Snapchat clone feature that never caught on the way that Meta had hoped.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
In 2016, Instagram launched a replica of Snapchat’s popular Stories feature, which eventually went on to become a major element of Instagram, and has since overtaken Snapchat Stories in total usage.
Which makes sense, given that Instagram has more than twice as many users as Snapchat. Indeed, Meta’s massive scale has repeatedly been used to beat down its competition, much to the chagrin of the FTC.
But even so, Snapchat has continued on its own path and forged its own identity within the modern interactive landscape, even as Meta has tried to crush it at every turn.
And while it’s possible Meta will crush Snapchat’s coming attempt to launch its own AR glasses, a product category Meta is also competing in, it is respectable that Spiegel opted to build his own way.
It’s the more difficult option, for sure. Meta’s co-opting of Snap features has definitely hurt Snap’s growth. But Snapchat is relevant, despite Zuckerberg’s seeming intent to force it out of the market.
Snapchat’s “Reals” prank is just the latest provocation, though I do wonder whether poking the Meta bear is a wise move.
