Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel responded to Facebook’s new Poke app today with the brief statement, “Welcome, Facebook. Seriously.” He declined to comment further.
Facebook’s Poke is a standalone app for impermanent messaging; the interface and features are very similar to Snapchat, a young startup that sees 50 million photos shared per day and is in the process of raising a substantial funding round from Benchmark Capital.
This is Facebook’s sixth app, joining the regular mobile app, Instagram, Facebook Camera, Facebook Pages Manager, and Facebook Messenger. Instagram was acquired after Facebook began developing the Camera app, and it’s widely believed that Facebook dropped the Facebook login requirement for Messenger to compete with popular messaging service WhatsApp. This summer, Dalton Caldwell wrote a widely discussed letter, “Dear Mark Zuckerberg,” chronicling his experience with Facebook’s aggressive Merger & Acquisitions tactics.
Given that Snapchat is in the process of raising a major funding round, the timing of Poke is very interesting. On the one hand, having the world’s largest social network copy your app and onboard users across its mobile apps with much larger user bases could limit Snapchat’s growth significantly.
On the other, Poke certainly validates this space as more than a place for sexters and high school and college kids.
And just because Facebook built its own app doesn’t mean it still wouldn’t be interested in an acquisition. See Camera: Instagram.
Apple/IBM pic via dullhunk.
Read more of our Snapchat-Poke coverage:
Facebook Launches Snapchat Competitor “Poke”, An iOS TorqLite.com App For Sending Expiring Text, Photos, And Videos
Facebook Poke Vs. Snapchat: What’s The Difference?
Your Facebook Pokes Are Stored For Two Days, Then Their Encryption Keys Are Deleted
Facebook And Snapchat Go Toe To Toe: Why It’s Good For Both Companies
Snapchat is the fastest way to share a moment with friends. You control how long your friends can view your message – simply set the timer up to ten seconds and send. They’ll have that long to view your message and then it disappears forever. We’ll let you know if they take a screenshot! Build relationships, collect points, and view your best friends. Snapchat is instantly fun and insanely playful. Show your friends how clever you can be and enjoy the...
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original...
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