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Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

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Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

#61
As a college student who’s only social media comes through Snapchat, I’m glad that they will be making changes. The redesign doesn’t make much sense and just made things more confusing if anything. I have 12+ friends in a group which we use to coordinate hanging out and to generally chat about things we find interesting. I haven’t used the stories functionality in over a year. I really think the move to focusing on chat is the way to go, even though there’s a lot of competition there.

I started on Facebook at 12 years old when it first became popular, I’ve gone through many platforms but dropped them all and I’ve been using only Snapchat for over 4 years now and it seems to have the perfect level of privacy. It also doesn’t feed as much into the whole “look at how awesome my life is compared to yours” trap of facebookish platforms, at least the way my friends use it.

Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

#62

They had a working thing and then ruined it. I’m not sure how they managed to do that with a product change. Didn’t they have a way to release changes and measure impact before just forcing it on their entire user base? Once a company gets to this level, they need to recognize the role that luck played into their original product and design. They hit a resonance with people, and it was probably more luck and timing t…

I think you hit the nail on the head here. There were reports that came out from several sources that Evan ignored all feedback from product and design including hard numbers from early tests. There were apparently several groups internally that tried to stop the massive changes from dropping without adequate testing and iteration. Those groups were overridden by Evan in favor of "vision" and that apparent lack of di…

"product visionary" is hilarious for an app literally designed for college girls to send nude photos.

Edit, it's true the co-founders were in a dorm room and came up with an idea for girls to securely send nudes. There is a reason it is commonly referred to as snachchat.

Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

#63

They're fucked.

Please post something useful, insightful or worthy of discussion. Otherwise, don't post at all. Thank you.

Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it. Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.

Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

#64
post #31

Here's coverage without an insanely user hostile "WE ARE PART OF OATH YOUR PRIVACY IS IMPORTANT (BUT IT'S DIFFICULT TO FIND SETTINGS TO DISABLE COOKIES)" lightbox which cannot be dismissed: https://cheddar.com/videos/snap-ceo-evan-spiegel-company-mem...

Ublock Origin plus Cookiemonster list - I never see a cookie banner.

Thanks for mentioning this[1]! I just realized that I was only using the Prebake[2] list, which doesn't appear to be actively maintained.

[1] https://www.fanboy.co.nz/fanboy-cookiemonster.txt

[2] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liamja/Prebake/master/obtr...

Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

#65
post #51
post #21

”Adults, not teens. Messaging, not Stories. Developing markets, not the U.S.” So... Snap basically wants to be Facebook? Adults, messaging, developing world — Facebook is already enormously entrenched in the overlap of those markets thanks to Messenger and WhatsApp. FB has also shown the ability to clone Snap’s product innovations. I have a feeling 2019 is the year when Snap is acquired. The market cap is already bel…

Who would be the buyer, though? Microsoft? Alibaba? I can't see many acquirers wanting to get into the competitions that snapchat has gotten themselves into.

maybe Google finally gets their social network

Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

#66

They had a working thing and then ruined it. I’m not sure how they managed to do that with a product change. Didn’t they have a way to release changes and measure impact before just forcing it on their entire user base? Once a company gets to this level, they need to recognize the role that luck played into their original product and design. They hit a resonance with people, and it was probably more luck and timing t…

This is the lesson everyone should have taken from digg.com but it is still being played out again and again.

Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

#68

They had a working thing and then ruined it. I’m not sure how they managed to do that with a product change. Didn’t they have a way to release changes and measure impact before just forcing it on their entire user base? Once a company gets to this level, they need to recognize the role that luck played into their original product and design. They hit a resonance with people, and it was probably more luck and timing t…

To expand on what you're saying: when a user base forms habits around a product—especially something they use on a daily basis—changes no matter how good can be jarring as a result, and thus have a negative impact.

Perhaps Snapchat as it exists now would've taken off just the same, but because the new version represents such a jarring departure from the old, it flops.

A better example of this might be Microsoft keeping the Start Menu for over 20 years. While some cheered for its demise, most users decried the change at the time.

That said, the problems with Snapchat as it exists today run far deeper than merely disrupting people's existing habits, so it's not the best example. Personally I think the app is now poorly-engineered trash. Nonetheless, the notion is an interesting one to at least consider, if only in an abstract sense.

Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

#69

[flagged]

GOTV in apps was fairly common during the Obama years as well. In a democracy there is only one correct side in the “get more people to vote” and “get less people to vote” argument. The fact that some think getting more people to vote is a partisan endeavor says more about the anti democratic leanings of one side of the partisan divide than anything else. (Edited)

It is partisan because because people’s votes are predictable. An armed forces GOTV is going to benefit one side, an African American GOTV is going to benefit the other. Who a GOTV targets shows which side they are on.

Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival

#70
post #21

”Adults, not teens. Messaging, not Stories. Developing markets, not the U.S.” So... Snap basically wants to be Facebook? Adults, messaging, developing world — Facebook is already enormously entrenched in the overlap of those markets thanks to Messenger and WhatsApp. FB has also shown the ability to clone Snap’s product innovations. I have a feeling 2019 is the year when Snap is acquired. The market cap is already bel…

> "Developing markets, not the U.S.”

I thought he hated developing markets?

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