War of the Social Media Platforms

It’s no secret that social media platforms are consistently seeking new and improved features, continually looking to push them ahead of their competitors. Yet, what happens when social platforms go head-to-head? It is a millennial minefield, who will be the next to unleash their nuclear update? It’s war of the social media platforms.  

The recent copycat epidemic in the social media sphere has seen many platforms introduce features such as live broadcasting and temporary stories or posts. It can be argued that each new feature is at the mercy of big players in the game because surely each social media user wants one app to rule them all?  

The war of social media platforms has already claimed some victims, with specific apps facing an early demise at the hands of fan favourites adopting their “unique” features. Amongst those we lost too soon was Vine, a short video hosting application owned by Twitter that allowed users to generate six-second-long looping video clips, the app stopped its services in 2017. Also held by Twitter was the live streaming service, Periscope. Although still used by a small number of users, Twitter has even seemingly abandoned the app, with no significant updates in years.  

At the heart of the domino effect is Mark Zuckerburg, now having a hand in the development of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Although in his quest for complete social media domination is Zuckerburg merely opening the market for more unique apps to take the lead?  

Zuckerburg reportedly tried to buy Snapchat for $3 million in 2013, but no deal was achieved. Then Instagram released the ‘stories’ feature.... was this the beginning of the demise of Snapchat? They did arguably try to fight back with a new update, but with platform influencers with a follower count of millions such as, Kylie Jenner abandoning the app, what is left for the image and video focused platform?  

So, why is this behaviour welcome in the social media sector? It seems monopolising the market is the principal focus of the Facebook founder, and heading lessons from Internet ruler, Google, it seems that destroying the competition is the secret to success. Peter Thiel, Facebook’s initial investor, has addressed the theory, stating “In business, money is either an important thing or it is everything. Monopolists can think about ?things other than making money; non-monopolists can’t … ” 

Monopolising an industry is not a new tactic, nor is it groundbreaking. But, with frequent updates, and a recent focus on the Facebook scandal how many of Zuckerburg’s intentions are in the interests of the social media user? 

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