Facebook’s Clones Attack Snapchat

Facebook Inc.’s attitude toward younger competitor Snap Inc. seems to be: we can’t have you, so we'll create our own versions of you. Ever since Snap turned down a $3 billion Facebook acquisition offer in 2013, the social media giant has churned out copycat features and full clones of Snapchat.

Not all have worked. Poke, Facebook’s first attempt at creating an app with the same features as Snapchat, was unpopular and, after a few months, was removed from the app store.

Facebook’s latest, more effective strategy involves integrating Snapchat’s disappearing photo-sharing tools into its already popular apps. The Instagram version of Snapchat stories, which lets people broadcast photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours, already has 150 million daily users. WhatsApp is trying the same with an update to its “Status” feature this week.

Here’s a history of Snapchat’s copycats: