22/05/17 - How many Snapchat clones does it take for Facebook to lose its self-respect? (74)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/10/snapchat-clones-facebook-copies

This article is about Facebook have been trying to copy ideas from Snapchat. 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 argument that has taken place is that whether or not Facebook have been legally allowed to add these effects to its applications and if not, have Snapchat tried to fine Facebook itself. However, the writer also included that 'even if Mark Zuckerberg isn’t directly commanding the creation of Snapchat clones, it’s clearly something he cares strongly about. In 2012, when Facebook built its first ever clone, Poke, it boasted that the app took only 12 days to create'. Practice makes perfect, clearly, because the app flopped. By 2014, Zuckerberg was spinning that Poke was “more of a joke” than a real app, telling Businessweek that “a few people built it in a hackathon thing … and then just kind of abandoned it.”

• The jokes continued, though. Later in 2014, Facebook released a second clone, Slingshot, which also died on its feet. In between, of course, the company tried a more direct approach, making a $3bn acquisition attempt which Snapchat rebuffed.
• The jokes continued, though. Later in 2014, Facebook released a second clone, Slingshot, which also died on its feet. In between, of course, the company tried a more direct approach, making a $3bn acquisition attempt which Snapchat rebuffed.
• I’ve not heard a more obvious attempt to rewrite corporate history since Microsoft refused to acknowledge the iPod in its attempt to branch out into podcasting (“The term podcast is a combination of pod (Portable On Demand) and broadcast,” it helpfully told Windows Vista users in 2009). The interview spends more time acknowledging AOL instant messenger, a 20-year-old chat program, than it does discussing Snapchat.

In my opinion, I believe that what Facebook have done is very wrong as they have been stealing different ideas from an up-coming rival of theirs. However, I also believe that if Snapchat haven't tried to complain to the government about Facebook stealing ideas, then no one else should be complaining about this. But, this is backsliding even for Facebook. When Instagram cloned Stories, in mid 2016, its chief executive Kevin Systrom did at least acknowledge that the format had been invented by his competitor, but argued that it was bound to become more universal.