- Snap CEO Evan Spiegel changed his title on LinkedIn to “VP Product @ Meta,” jokingly referencing Meta’s habit of cloning features such as “stories” that Snapchat pioneered. The rivalry between the two stalwarts is well-documented, and Meta is viewed as a fast follower after a competitor launches a new component that gains popularity.
Snap cofounder Evan Spiegel took a shot at Mark Zuckerberg’s company on LinkedIn by underscoring the lookalike features Meta’s apps have replicated from Snapchat.
On LinkedIn, Spiegel added a new title to his about section: It now states he is a "Loving husband, father of four boys, VP Product @ Meta," likely in reference to Meta’s history of releasing features that look eerily similar to those of Snapchat.
Snapchat was an acquisition target for Meta, but Spiegel turned down a reported $3 billion acquisition offer in 2013 and remained independent.
Yet that didn’t stop Meta from releasing its own versions of popular features. The most famous example is Instagram’s 2016 release of Instagram Stories, which gave users the ability to post photos that later disappear. The feature was also added to Facebook and WhatsApp. But the concept of “stories” was first introduced by Snapchat in 2013 and is one of the primary distinguishing features of the app.
Other pioneering features that Instagram replicated from Snapchat include disappearing direct messages and filters that distort a user’s face.
Spiegel has in the past had mixed feelings about Meta’s feature cloning, adding during a conference in 2018 that it was the best feeling "to design something that is so simple and so elegant that the only thing competitors can do is copy it exactly."
Spiegel joked at the time that he wished Meta would copy other aspects of the company as well.
"We would really appreciate it if they would copy our data protection practices also," he said.
Meta and Snapchat did not immediately respond to Fortune's request for comment.
Meta and Instagram execs have previously shown little remorse about making features that look similar to Snapchat's.
Former Instagram VP of product Kevin Weil said in 2017 that it would be silly to not touch a good idea just because it was used elsewhere.
“If we’re being honest with ourselves, this is the way the tech industry works and frankly how all industries work. Good ideas start in one place, and they spread across the entire industry,” he said during a TechCrunch conference in 2017.
Still, former Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom once told TechCrunch that Snapchat “deserved all the credit” for stories.
