4 ms·

TikTok and Instagram are the hip internet properties where young people share stuff. Snap Chat is essentially a dying service. Evan Spiegel is not a visionary l

by ginger2016 4y ago

TikTok and Instagram are the hip internet properties where young people share stuff. Snap Chat is essentially a dying service. Evan Spiegel is not a visionary like Zuckerberg, Gates, Bezos, Brin and Page. That said he is smart enough to run Snap which in my opinion is a boutique web site some people find interesting. Snap won’t matter in a few years, it is better to sell it to a bigger social media network.

psalminen 4y ago
I've seen this happening for the last couple years, which is disappointing. It's always been the only social platform I use with frequency, but that's becoming harder with fewer of my peers using it.
nrmitchi 4y ago
> Evan Spiegel is not a visionary like Zuckerberg I'm not here to defend Spiegel, but this sentence kind of reads as a joke based on the amount of "copying Snapchat to put into Instagram" that Facebook spent years doing.
- ginger2016 4y ago
  ok, fair. Spiegel came up with some new features for his app which people found interesting, and maybe even copied. That will make him an above average Product Manager, not a visionary leader in the caliber of Zuckerberg, Gates, Bezos, or the Google Duo; all these people are empire builders, they used their initial success acquire/build multiple billion dollar conglomerates that own multiple internet properties. Granted, Spiegel has kept snap some what relevant all these years, but he is not an empire builder, and to be a big player in the social media space you need a leader who is an empire builder.
  - nrmitchi 4y ago
    > they used their initial success acquire/build multiple billion dollar conglomerates Snapchat currently has a market cap of $18B. Snapchat has acquired (at least, from my basic google search) 12 different companies. Your measuring stick here is so extremely off. I not-so-secretly hope Spiegel sees this, has a laugh, and updates his LinkedIn position to "above average Product Manager @ Snapchat"
gnz11 4y ago
According to my teenage relatives, Instagram is out, TikTok and Snap are in. Instagram is just to keep up appearances.
- ginger2016 4y ago
  India banning TikTok has really helped Instagram in India. Instagram is the top player for short form video there. India will give instagram a large user base to test out new features and keep their expansionist vision going for the rest of the world.
- yannis7 4y ago
  not according to Pew - Instagram is still strong amongst teens https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/ https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social...
  - gnz11 4y ago
    > Instagram is still strong amongst teens Yes, see "Instagram is just to keep up appearances." Still in use but out. As in out of style, not cool, for the parents, etc. Teens are using it to keep the parents at bay for what they are doing on TikTok/Snap.
    - bagacrap 4y ago
      as reluctant as I am to trust this kind of anecdata, for the sake of argument let's assume it's true. What matters is usage, not the reason for the usage
- tssva 4y ago
  That is what I see with my teen daughter too.
babypuncher 4y ago
Zuckerberg is no visionary. He didn't create Instagram, he bought it.
- ginger2016 4y ago
  No one prevented Spiegel from buying Musical.ly and turning it to TikTok.
- askafriend 4y ago
  What a silly take. Instagram was barely anything when Facebook acquired it - there was only an iOS app, barely 27m users and 0 revenue. It was a hugely controversial move to buy it for $1B and there were countless articles about how the acquisition made no sense and how Zuckerberg is making a huge mistake. It's one of the greatest acquisitions of all time and a masterclass in strategy and execution.
  - itslennysfault 4y ago
    Psssssssssh All they've done since they acquired it is CLONE SNAP (aka stories) and add it to IG, and now they're just cloning TikTok because Facebook hasn't ever had an original idea.
    - askafriend 4y ago
      That's not true. Frankly, it's clear you simply don't know what you're talking about. They've built an entire monetization engine around it, made a TON of improvements around how media works, added several new formats, built a ton of anti-spam detection/eradication/moderation that works at scale and makes the product actually usable, launched in so many countries with language/accessibility support, and so much more that Instagram couldn't have done as a standalone company. When Facebook bought Instagram, it was just a speck - it wasn't even a business. It's not even close to the juggernaut it is today. There's a ton of stuff that goes into scaling products like this. If you want to have a rational conversation about this you have to go deeper than using all caps CLONE. You don't go from 27M to >2B users and from $0 to >$25B in revenue just...randomly.
the_duke 4y ago
Certainly not at all what I'm witnessing. Instagram seems to still be used by teens, but slowly fizzling out. Tiktok is popular. Snap seems the preferred chat app for most.
itslennysfault 4y ago
You're joking right? Zuckerberg a visionary? In what world? As far as I can tell the man has never had an original thought. All he knows how to do is see what some other company is doing and have his team clone it and/or buy it.

psalminen 4y ago

I've seen this happening for the last couple years, which is disappointing. It's always been the only social platform I use with frequency, but that's becoming harder with fewer of my peers using it.

nrmitchi 4y ago

> Evan Spiegel is not a visionary like Zuckerberg I'm not here to defend Spiegel, but this sentence kind of reads as a joke based on the amount of "copying Snapchat to put into Instagram" that Facebook spent years doing.

ginger2016 4y ago
ok, fair. Spiegel came up with some new features for his app which people found interesting, and maybe even copied. That will make him an above average Product Manager, not a visionary leader in the caliber of Zuckerberg, Gates, Bezos, or the Google Duo; all these people are empire builders, they used their initial success acquire/build multiple billion dollar conglomerates that own multiple internet properties. Granted, Spiegel has kept snap some what relevant all these years, but he is not an empire builder, and to be a big player in the social media space you need a leader who is an empire builder.
- nrmitchi 4y ago
  > they used their initial success acquire/build multiple billion dollar conglomerates Snapchat currently has a market cap of $18B. Snapchat has acquired (at least, from my basic google search) 12 different companies. Your measuring stick here is so extremely off. I not-so-secretly hope Spiegel sees this, has a laugh, and updates his LinkedIn position to "above average Product Manager @ Snapchat"

gnz11 4y ago

According to my teenage relatives, Instagram is out, TikTok and Snap are in. Instagram is just to keep up appearances.

ginger2016 4y ago
India banning TikTok has really helped Instagram in India. Instagram is the top player for short form video there. India will give instagram a large user base to test out new features and keep their expansionist vision going for the rest of the world.
yannis7 4y ago
not according to Pew - Instagram is still strong amongst teens https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/ https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social...
- gnz11 4y ago
  > Instagram is still strong amongst teens Yes, see "Instagram is just to keep up appearances." Still in use but out. As in out of style, not cool, for the parents, etc. Teens are using it to keep the parents at bay for what they are doing on TikTok/Snap.
  - bagacrap 4y ago
    as reluctant as I am to trust this kind of anecdata, for the sake of argument let's assume it's true. What matters is usage, not the reason for the usage
tssva 4y ago
That is what I see with my teen daughter too.

babypuncher 4y ago

Zuckerberg is no visionary. He didn't create Instagram, he bought it.

ginger2016 4y ago
No one prevented Spiegel from buying Musical.ly and turning it to TikTok.
askafriend 4y ago
What a silly take. Instagram was barely anything when Facebook acquired it - there was only an iOS app, barely 27m users and 0 revenue. It was a hugely controversial move to buy it for $1B and there were countless articles about how the acquisition made no sense and how Zuckerberg is making a huge mistake. It's one of the greatest acquisitions of all time and a masterclass in strategy and execution.
- itslennysfault 4y ago
  Psssssssssh All they've done since they acquired it is CLONE SNAP (aka stories) and add it to IG, and now they're just cloning TikTok because Facebook hasn't ever had an original idea.
  - askafriend 4y ago
    That's not true. Frankly, it's clear you simply don't know what you're talking about. They've built an entire monetization engine around it, made a TON of improvements around how media works, added several new formats, built a ton of anti-spam detection/eradication/moderation that works at scale and makes the product actually usable, launched in so many countries with language/accessibility support, and so much more that Instagram couldn't have done as a standalone company. When Facebook bought Instagram, it was just a speck - it wasn't even a business. It's not even close to the juggernaut it is today. There's a ton of stuff that goes into scaling products like this. If you want to have a rational conversation about this you have to go deeper than using all caps CLONE. You don't go from 27M to >2B users and from $0 to >$25B in revenue just...randomly.

the_duke 4y ago

Certainly not at all what I'm witnessing. Instagram seems to still be used by teens, but slowly fizzling out. Tiktok is popular. Snap seems the preferred chat app for most.

itslennysfault 4y ago

You're joking right? Zuckerberg a visionary? In what world? As far as I can tell the man has never had an original thought. All he knows how to do is see what some other company is doing and have his team clone it and/or buy it.