{"id":335539,"date":"2017-03-11T02:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T18:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1463302"},"modified":"2017-03-11T02:00:15","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T18:00:15","slug":"that-time-facebook-went-too-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/that-time-facebook-went-too-far\/","title":{"rendered":"That time Facebook went too far"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook\u2019s attempts to clone Snapchat know no limit.<\/p>\n

The social networking giant is in the\u00a0enviable position of owning a number of the world\u2019s most used internet services and applications.\u00a0Facebook the social network is closing in on two billion registered users \u2014 a level of global reach\u00a0that is unprecedented in history \u2014 while its Messenger app counts one billion active users.<\/p>\n

The company has invested wisely, and two of its acquisitions are equally as popular\u00a0and international. WhatsApp has more than a billion active users worldwide, predominantly in emerging markets, while Instagram reached 500 million users last summer and continues to grow fast across pretty much every part of the world bar China.<\/p>\n

Facebook is a once in a generation beast because it has the kind of scale that no other company has, or is ever\u00a0likely to reach in this generation, at least.<\/p>\n

Through its growth it has laid out a tough standard for other social networks and services. The Facebook comparison has blighted Twitter and its failure to grow, for example, and it is weighing on the minds of investors in newly public firm Snap, too.<\/p>\n

All the Snaps in all the chats<\/h2>\n

Yet despite these achievements, Mark Zuckerberg and his team seem\u00a0determined to out-snap Snap, the company he once tried to buy for $3 billion,\u00a0by cloning its disappearing photo feature, the core of its app, into every piece of digital real estate that Facebook owns.<\/p>\n

That focus appears to be working for Instagram \u2014 which we reported is burrowing into Snap\u2019s business in terms of both users and influencers<\/a> \u2014\u00a0but Facebook\u2019s relentless pursuit of all possible cloning opportunities\u00a0has now officially gone too far. This week it launched Messenger Day for Facebook Messenger<\/a>,\u00a0having added a similar feature to WhatsApp last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Messenger and WhatsApp, arguably its two prized jewels in today\u2019s mobile-first messenger-centric world, have been Snap-cloned \u2014 and the results appear far from impressive.<\/p>\n

As someone living in a market where Facebook first tested Messenger Day \u2014 the Snapchat clone its executives refuse to acknowledge was\u00a0copied from Snapchat \u2014 I can say that the new feature has only soured my use of Messenger.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that it sits\u00a0atop the app with no option to hide or remove it, I\u2019ve never seen more than three of my 600-plus Facebook friends from across Asia, Europe and the U.S. use it during a single day. Others I spoke to have seen a similar pattern of (lack of) usage.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s worse is that Facebook has inadvertently brought people into this Snaptastic new world of photo sharing\u00a0without their full knowledge.<\/p>\n

The constant prompts that pop up when you share an image inside a Messenger chat window have led to embarrassing accidental postings. One friend posted confirmation of a bank transfer, sent as confirmation to the receiver via Messenger, to \u201cMessenger Day.\u201d\u00a0Because it wasn\u2019t clear how to remove the image, he cringed all day as it sat there\u00a0for all to see for 24 hours before finally disappearing.<\/p>\n

The feature just launched in the U.S., but already the signs don\u2019t seem too encouraging.<\/p>\n

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Now that Facebook Messenger is trying to be Snapchat, I long for the days when it was trying to be WeChat.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Andreas Ehn (@ehn) March 10, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n

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messenger just became a shite Snapchat<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lee🈵 (@FightFoleyFight) March 10, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n

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“Add to your day” no thanks Facebook Messenger I use Snapchat to show people who shit my day is<\/p>\n

\u2014 Aodh\u00e1n (@AodhanBenson) March 10, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n

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My god this was a bad idea. I’m certain Stories in my banking app are next.<\/p>\n

\u2014 M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) March 10, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n

Beyond the Twitter crowd, young people \u2014 thought to be one of the the key targets of Facebook\u2019s clone attempts \u2014 don\u2019t seem to take the new Messenger Day feature very seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy school friends think Facebook Day is ridiculous, and so do I,\u201d Tiffany Zhong<\/a>, a 20-year-old student who formerly worked at VC firm Binary Capital<\/a>, told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sentiment around Facebook Day is clearly all negative unfortunately. But shoutout to Facebook for being relentless and shameless in replicating Snapchat!\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Zhong said she posted one photo on the new service captioned \u2018What is this nonsense\u2019 and was surprised to see that\u00a0all the responses she got from her friends were negative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is everything about creating stories now. i hate it lmao,\u201d one told her.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not exactly the response Facebook HQ was hoping for.<\/p>\n

SnapsApp<\/h2>\n

It isn\u2019t just Messenger \u2014 the WhatsApp experience has been\u00a0an equal disappointment.<\/p>\n

Few people I know on WhatsApp \u2014 many of whom are in India or other countries where it\u00a0is the primary communications app \u2014 have used the new Snapchat<\/span> Status feature.<\/p>\n

From conversations, most\u00a0are unclear as to why they\u2019d want to post self-destructing photos in the first place, while other more tech-savvy friends, perhaps influenced by Western internet culture, would rather post to a place where family and friends aren\u2019t going to be on the receiving end of their photos. On the whole, the answer to that latter part is Snapchat, not WhatsApp or Messenger.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Beyond an effort to appeal to younger people who are reportedly ditching its service for places where\u00a0their parents are not,\u00a0Facebook\u2019s Rest of the World theory on Messenger and WhatsApp seems to center on the fact that Snap has failed to build a meaningful presence in\u00a0emerging markets.<\/p>\n