Did Snap Chat Screw Up?

 Did Snap Chat Screw Up?

Declining Facebook

There was much talk about SnapChat when they made a rejection of Facebook and their 3 Billion dollar buy out offer. Did Snap Chat screw up big time? With the talk comes many questions as to why their business would so quickly turn down such a large amount, especially during a time when other social media platforms such as Vine or Instagram were so eager to sell. However, a look at some of the facts we know and a bit of logical speculation may yield a feasible answer and shed some light on SnapChat and their marketing tactics. This is actually a subject that +George Forbes  and I were discussing.

First, lets take a look at the current state of Facebook and their stocks. It is no secret that when the company initially went public that things were a little bit rocky. It did not take them long to balance everything back out and begin throwing around their muscle again with their 1 Billion dollar purchase of Instagram. However, any benefits that they might have gained from this purchase were quickly overshadowed in the fact the Facebook released data revealing that they were losing some of their most loyal and active users, teens and Millenial's. Where were all of these people migrating too? The answer, Snap Chat.

Second, lets look at where Facebook falls with its purpose of being a bridge for businesses to provide information and also a directory for them to post their contact information. Out of all major social media outlets, Facebook sits between websites (the largest social media & blogging platform) and Twitter ( a steadily growing platform with the added benefit of functioning as a micro-blogging tool). It is essentially the middle man in the whole concept, but you have to wonder if Twitter is capable of taking out the middle man and providing most of its services. I personally think that they are because the micro-blogging aspect of Twitter allows users to post short posts that would get the user to wherever they need to go. This is something that I feel the owners of Snap Chat recognize as well, not to mention they see that Twitter would compliment their platform more than Facebook. If my predictions on at least this aspect of Snap Chat are true then the question of "Did Snap Chat Screw Up?" may appear to be leaning more to an answer of no. That is until you take a look at a the recent changes that they have decided to create.


 Snap Chat And Their Newest Feature

Recently Snap Chat added a couple of features to their service. The first, a feature to add filters to your photos is the less significant of the features added. The one that may very well break or make Snap Chat a bigger (or smaller) name than it is already is their replay feature. What this feature allows a user to do is to view a message a second time, but only once a day.

What made Snap Chat unique was how it handled the pictures. No other photo sharing app permanently deleted (well at least as close to permanent as you can get) photos six seconds after they were opened. For whatever reason, this provided a wow and entertainment factor for individuals and they flocked to the service. How will a feature that may allow for less privacy to Snap Chat users effect those that enjoyed the service just for that purpose? Did Snap Chat Screw Up with this decision? I feel like they may have as people greatly value their privacy.