I recently read this article that discusses how Snapchat needs to grow faster to compete with Instagram.  I call Snapchat “Facebook Labs” because Instagram has copied most of Snapchat’s functionality over the past year. So much that Snapchat has acquired a team that makes reverse engineering difficult.  (I also want to see if they can get creative with patenting.) I also read about a month ago, that Twitter has lost 2 million users. That said, I’m unsure that it’s time to start worrying about a company that has 280 million active users. Maybe I’m wrong. We. Shall. See.
But, if you back up 30,000ft, both of these companies have relatively the same issue. They’re filled with wolves. Their users are predominantly sophisticated within their those ecosystems. (Below is a data visualization that shows the influence of Twitter users on Facebook users. Twitter is blue and Facebook is green.)
If you understand how the food chain works, you shouldn’t be surprised by Snapchat’s slowing growth and Twitter’s reduction. The question those companies need to ask themselves is: How many wolves are there?
