NEW YORK (AP) – Facebook has been bent on copying Snapchat ever since the social media giant tried unsuccessfully in 2013 to buy what was then an ephemeral photo-messaging app.
Now, the company behind Snapchat is bent on becoming more like its bigger rival – at least when it comes to success – by courting new users and with them, advertisers.
Snap Inc. is scheduled to report its first quarterly earnings as a public company on Wednesday. That’s just a week after Facebook reported solid first-quarter results, with double-digit revenue growth – as it has consistently since going public in 2012. Analysts expect Snap to report that its user growth rate continued to slide.
Facebook’s shadow continues to hang over Snapchat, which is still best known for disappearing messages even though it has evolved to become much more.
Growth in Snapchat’s user base slowed down last year after Facebook’s Instagram copied Snapchat’s “stories” feature, which lets users post short video clips that disappear after 24 hours. Not to miss out on the trend, Facebook also launched disappearing stories this year.