[Leo_Decashio]

I'm sure everyone has seen the Instagram Stories update. I know guys in the online dating/social media threads are figuring out how to adapt their instagram game with this change.

Ben Thompson of Stratechery (excellent tech blog, btw) had some relevant commentary on the necessity of Zuck and Systrom's swipe at Snapchat's userbase, because social media advertising is a zero sum game at the end of the day:

Quote:

What makes the Snapchat threat to Facebook unique is that it does a fundamentally different job: by starting with ephemerality Snapchat gave its users, initially teens eternally eager to escape adults’ prying eyes, permission to be themselves. And so while Snapchat has photos and videos and messaging — just like Facebook and Instagram — it is not complementary but orthogonal.

In a vacuum this is fine: by virtue of doing a different job Snapchat is not really a threat to Facebook’s (or Instagram’s) core use case or primary value proposition, which is owning identity. Advertising-based consumer products don’t live in a vacuum though, because attention is a zero-sum game: as Snapchat gobbles up more and more attention Facebook’s addressable market for advertising is by definition shrinking.

Thompson also comments on the inherent UX tension of trying to squeeze Snapchat-esque spontaneity into Instagram, which thrives on permanance and perfection:

Quote:

It’s not certain Facebook and Instagram will succeed, and the risk is significant: the only thing harder than rewiring users’ expectations for a massively successful product is ensuring said rewiring doesn’t turn them off from the app entirely, destroying the very value you are trying to leverage (and, frankly, it may be too late).

Good read: https://stratechery.com/2016/the-audacit...ying-well/