As a fellow ‘snap-chatter’ and in response to Keenan Manhas’ post “Snapchat Decides to Stand Alone After Rejecting Facebook’s Offer” it is safe to say that Snapchat is a far more entertaining, fresh way of connecting with friends. Facebook knows it too, and that’s why they recently tried to buy out the company, without success. As highlighted by Keenan’s blog, Facebook’s popularity is declining and in order to maintain competitive expansion is necessary. ‘Buying out’ seems to be the natural instinct for large online sites when they feel threatened by new entrants into the market, so it is no surprise that Facebook has offered billions for companies such as Vine and Instagram in the past. Huge returns on investment have been earned on buyouts, such as when Google bought Youtube, now the largest ever video sharing site.

Keenan’s blog brilliantly illustrates the competitiveness of the social media market and how a buyout can reduce that competition to an oligopoly or even a monopoly.

Embedded Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/keenanmanhas/2013/11/13/snapchat-decides-to-stand-alone-after-rejecting-facebooks-offer/

Source: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/11/13/business/13buyout.583.gif