Facebook Launches Stories, Final Snapchat Kill Moment Imminent

It's shocking to me that Snapchat stock has been still growing since it went public. It had its ups and downs since going public, yet Snap stock is still very high valuing the company at around $25B... And Facebook, like it has many times, is carefully crafting a strategy/tactic to kill it off. Facebook has just launched Snapchat / Instagram / Messenger / WhatsApp-like stories in the its main app. This is after Facebook already deployed stories pretty much anywhere it could - Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp. Particularly the Instagram integration is really what is really picking up and it alone can be a major blow - especially since Instagram is so much more popular than Snapchat. But today, they have rolled it out in the "big" Facebook app.

Already since launch, the stories seem to be getting some good engagement and traction - but of course the updates are still just coming in...

All Facebook has to do is now quite simple: They really have to bring the story publishing experience in one. You create in one, publish in many (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) - and then, Snapchat will become obsolete.

Yes, Snapchat still can have its community, but given only 1/3 part of its users actually do publish stories in the stories format to all friends, Facebook can really steal that thunder away.

We will really see if Snapchat survives these Facebook attack in 2 - 3 quarters, but perhaps the most important will be its Q1 & Q2 earnings to see if it is managing to fend off these attacks. By rankings in Play and AppStores on AppAnnie - it's still holding top position in the AppStores, but falling in a few markets.

Lets see!