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I thought a big factor for Snapchat was that it did not have Facebook users. Teens and 20-somethings liked the fact that Snapchat was their smaller circle of r

by jasode 10y ago

I thought a big factor for Snapchat was that it did not have Facebook users. Teens and 20-somethings liked the fact that Snapchat was their smaller circle of real friends. Facebook has that goofy uncle, and coworkers from 5 jobs ago, and old classmates you don't really want to stay in touch with. Facebook has too many "weak ties". Therefore, Facebook could clone every feature of Snapchat but it can't change the fact that it is still Facebook. The new features might keep Facebook users from switching to Snapchat but would it entice Snapchat users to switch to Facebook? Sure, people can use social networks for a myriad of reasons but Snapchat the network seems to be a dominant factor.

danijelb 10y ago
When Instagram launched Stories, I noticed that most of my friends moved there. I rarely open Snapchat because it is almost empty, nothing is happening there. But apparently it stayed popular among high school students, so I guess it is different among different demographics - I'm 23 and most of my friends who switched are similar age. Facebook is probably hoping that similar will happen with the main app.
- froindt 10y ago
  That's interesting. I'm 24 and have a different experience. Among my close friends, none use Instagram to the point that I feel the need to. Snapchat is fairly popular. In the last couple months, my girlfriend and I both realized that Facebook was giving tons of stuff about people we don't care much about, and It's definitely popular in high school. I know a police officer who works in a high school. Snapchat is a huge pain point for them. Someone takes a screenshot of a nude their girlfriend sent and passes it along to friends 6 or 12 months later after they broke up and suddenly 45 people have child porn on their phones. One person took a picture of a friend and in the background they noticed a student upskirting a girl.
  - Rumudiez 10y ago
    Those things happened before Snapchat, too.. unfortunately it's an expected part of high school culture in the US.
    - dexterdog 10y ago
      Just the US?
capocannoniere 10y ago
> Teens and 20-somethings liked the fact that Snapchat was their real friends. Facebook has that goofy uncle, and coworkers from 5 jobs ago, and old classmates you don't really want to stay in touch with. Facebook has too many "weak ties". You can choose who you share your stories with on Facebook. But Facebook doesn't need to get _all_ Snapchat users to switch. It only needs a tiny percentage of all those users and will severely damage Snapchat (by slowing down its growth). See this article for a good argument: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-copy-snapchat-2017-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-copy-snapchat-2017-3
- jasode 10y ago
  >You can choose who you share your stories with on Facebook. Sure, I get that from a pure functional perspective. However, I'm talking about psychology of app usage. Consider an example of an iPhone home screen.[1] The user sees the Snapchat icon and a Facebook icon next to each other. I believe that many people (millions) will mentally compartmentalize the yellow ghost as "my real friends" and the blue "f" as "every random acquaintance that ever sent me a friend request and I never said no because of etiquette." Usage of each icon evolved to become its own "world" so to speak. Sure, one could theoretically create sub-worlds inside of Facebook but a customized "real friends of Facebook inside of Facebook" seems to be more work than just pushing the button with the yellow ghost. Staying inside the Snapchat world also minimizes accidentally sending the wrong Facebook-story to the wrong Facebook-friend. [1] http://i.imgur.com/CV91LsE.png http://i.imgur.com/CV91LsE.png
  - quineoa 10y ago
    Completely agree with this, and so do all the kids at school apparently. Since release, the only content I see on Messenger Stories is shitty memes from people I already hid from my feed (the same reason I don't use Facebook is shitty memes). Instagram stories has some semi interesting content, but all the good FOMO inducing content is usually on Snap and there might b research on this as well (something like the effect of FOMO on millennial social media addiction).
    - 10y ago
yeukhon 10y ago
You are right, it's exactly a network effect in that Fb wants to keep existing user interested.
gambiting 10y ago
I never understood why people are so averse to unfriending people they don't talk to on Facebook. I'm down to few dozen "friends" on facebook because every couple months I go through the list and delete everyone I haven't spoken with or who is not relevant to my interests anymore. Also - no family friends, that's like rule number one.
- matt_wulfeck 10y ago
  Every place has a culture, which has rules and expectations that don't depend on your own personal opinions. I would agree with GP that the culture of Facebook says that unfriending someone means something negative towards them.
  - tzakrajs 10y ago
    Sure, it is negative, but if you didnt want to be friends with them (not even virtually), why would you be so crushed up about their feelings?
    - filoleg 10y ago
      Because I would like to be an acquaintance, but facebook doesn't have that option. Crushing feelings of friendly acquaintances who didn't do anything wrong doesn't seem like a nice thing to do.
      - Shish2k 10y ago
        > Because I would like to be an acquaintance, but facebook doesn't have that option It literally does have that option - go to their profile, click the "friend" dropdown, change it from "friend" to "acquaintance", see that they stop showing up in your feed :) http://www.bewebsmart.com/social-media/facebook/use-the-acquaintances-list-hide-updates/ http://www.bewebsmart.com/social-media/facebook/use-the-acqu...
- jakebasile 10y ago
  Unfriending someone on Facebook has negative connotations (at least to me and those I know). I take the alternate approach of adding them to the default "acquaintances" list, and share accordingly. I also unfollow a large percentage of my friends so my newsfeed isn't polluted. The tools are there they just take some effort to get in the right place.
return0 10y ago
How long would it take until snapchat becomes the same?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mi100hael 10y ago
> The new features might keep Facebook users from switching to Snapchat but would it entice Snapchat users to switch to Facebook? I think the former is at least as important as the latter. Facebook has an order of magnitude more users than Snapchat. FB needs to keep their platform feeling modern and interesting so existing users don't feel the need to leave for greener pastures.
- rhizome 10y ago
  The walled garden once again, I wonder how Steve Case feels about all this.
thanatropism 10y ago
So true. I was beginning to enjoy doing Stories in the Messenger app.
kunaalarya 10y ago
that's true but it limits the growth potential and reach. Let Snapchat take a good portion of the teen market, while FB goes after everyone else.
- Touche 10y ago
  I think Snapchat is pretty popular with people in their 20s as well. Instagram with people in their 30s. The only "young" people I see on Facebook are new mothers who want to share pictures of their kids with older relatives.
debt 10y ago
Exactly. Kids don't want to use Facebook. That's the end of the conversation. Facebook has a PR problem that they literally will never be able to shake. Facebook has become the Blackboard of the internet; kids will use because it's a quick way to talk to their college friends and coordinate events and shit and that's it.
ninv 10y ago
Facebook is pulling Zynga here. Facebook is a cluttered mess. I gave up on them 3 years back when i was getting updates from friends of my friends.
thomastjeffery 10y ago
Facebook lets you tailor messages to a subset of your friends, but Facebook's method difficult and unintuitive. Google+ did a great job at this with circles, unfortunately none of the people I know actually started using it.

by jasode 10y ago

danijelb 10y ago

When Instagram launched Stories, I noticed that most of my friends moved there. I rarely open Snapchat because it is almost empty, nothing is happening there. But apparently it stayed popular among high school students, so I guess it is different among different demographics - I'm 23 and most of my friends who switched are similar age. Facebook is probably hoping that similar will happen with the main app.

froindt 10y ago
That's interesting. I'm 24 and have a different experience. Among my close friends, none use Instagram to the point that I feel the need to. Snapchat is fairly popular. In the last couple months, my girlfriend and I both realized that Facebook was giving tons of stuff about people we don't care much about, and It's definitely popular in high school. I know a police officer who works in a high school. Snapchat is a huge pain point for them. Someone takes a screenshot of a nude their girlfriend sent and passes it along to friends 6 or 12 months later after they broke up and suddenly 45 people have child porn on their phones. One person took a picture of a friend and in the background they noticed a student upskirting a girl.
- Rumudiez 10y ago
  Those things happened before Snapchat, too.. unfortunately it's an expected part of high school culture in the US.
  - dexterdog 10y ago
    Just the US?

capocannoniere 10y ago

> Teens and 20-somethings liked the fact that Snapchat was their real friends. Facebook has that goofy uncle, and coworkers from 5 jobs ago, and old classmates you don't really want to stay in touch with. Facebook has too many "weak ties". You can choose who you share your stories with on Facebook. But Facebook doesn't need to get _all_ Snapchat users to switch. It only needs a tiny percentage of all those users and will severely damage Snapchat (by slowing down its growth). See this article for a good argument: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-copy-snapchat-2017-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-copy-snapchat-2017-3

jasode 10y ago
>You can choose who you share your stories with on Facebook. Sure, I get that from a pure functional perspective. However, I'm talking about psychology of app usage. Consider an example of an iPhone home screen.[1] The user sees the Snapchat icon and a Facebook icon next to each other. I believe that many people (millions) will mentally compartmentalize the yellow ghost as "my real friends" and the blue "f" as "every random acquaintance that ever sent me a friend request and I never said no because of etiquette." Usage of each icon evolved to become its own "world" so to speak. Sure, one could theoretically create sub-worlds inside of Facebook but a customized "real friends of Facebook inside of Facebook" seems to be more work than just pushing the button with the yellow ghost. Staying inside the Snapchat world also minimizes accidentally sending the wrong Facebook-story to the wrong Facebook-friend. [1] http://i.imgur.com/CV91LsE.png http://i.imgur.com/CV91LsE.png
- quineoa 10y ago
  Completely agree with this, and so do all the kids at school apparently. Since release, the only content I see on Messenger Stories is shitty memes from people I already hid from my feed (the same reason I don't use Facebook is shitty memes). Instagram stories has some semi interesting content, but all the good FOMO inducing content is usually on Snap and there might b research on this as well (something like the effect of FOMO on millennial social media addiction).
  - 10y ago

yeukhon 10y ago

You are right, it's exactly a network effect in that Fb wants to keep existing user interested.

gambiting 10y ago

I never understood why people are so averse to unfriending people they don't talk to on Facebook. I'm down to few dozen "friends" on facebook because every couple months I go through the list and delete everyone I haven't spoken with or who is not relevant to my interests anymore. Also - no family friends, that's like rule number one.

matt_wulfeck 10y ago
Every place has a culture, which has rules and expectations that don't depend on your own personal opinions. I would agree with GP that the culture of Facebook says that unfriending someone means something negative towards them.
- tzakrajs 10y ago
  Sure, it is negative, but if you didnt want to be friends with them (not even virtually), why would you be so crushed up about their feelings?
  - filoleg 10y ago
    Because I would like to be an acquaintance, but facebook doesn't have that option. Crushing feelings of friendly acquaintances who didn't do anything wrong doesn't seem like a nice thing to do.
    - Shish2k 10y ago
      > Because I would like to be an acquaintance, but facebook doesn't have that option It literally does have that option - go to their profile, click the "friend" dropdown, change it from "friend" to "acquaintance", see that they stop showing up in your feed :) http://www.bewebsmart.com/social-media/facebook/use-the-acquaintances-list-hide-updates/ http://www.bewebsmart.com/social-media/facebook/use-the-acqu...
jakebasile 10y ago
Unfriending someone on Facebook has negative connotations (at least to me and those I know). I take the alternate approach of adding them to the default "acquaintances" list, and share accordingly. I also unfollow a large percentage of my friends so my newsfeed isn't polluted. The tools are there they just take some effort to get in the right place.

return0 10y ago

How long would it take until snapchat becomes the same?

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

mi100hael 10y ago

> The new features might keep Facebook users from switching to Snapchat but would it entice Snapchat users to switch to Facebook? I think the former is at least as important as the latter. Facebook has an order of magnitude more users than Snapchat. FB needs to keep their platform feeling modern and interesting so existing users don't feel the need to leave for greener pastures.

rhizome 10y ago
The walled garden once again, I wonder how Steve Case feels about all this.

thanatropism 10y ago

So true. I was beginning to enjoy doing Stories in the Messenger app.

kunaalarya 10y ago

that's true but it limits the growth potential and reach. Let Snapchat take a good portion of the teen market, while FB goes after everyone else.

Touche 10y ago
I think Snapchat is pretty popular with people in their 20s as well. Instagram with people in their 30s. The only "young" people I see on Facebook are new mothers who want to share pictures of their kids with older relatives.

debt 10y ago

Exactly. Kids don't want to use Facebook. That's the end of the conversation. Facebook has a PR problem that they literally will never be able to shake. Facebook has become the Blackboard of the internet; kids will use because it's a quick way to talk to their college friends and coordinate events and shit and that's it.

ninv 10y ago

Facebook is pulling Zynga here. Facebook is a cluttered mess. I gave up on them 3 years back when i was getting updates from friends of my friends.

thomastjeffery 10y ago

Facebook lets you tailor messages to a subset of your friends, but Facebook's method difficult and unintuitive. Google+ did a great job at this with circles, unfortunately none of the people I know actually started using it.