Recently the social media giant Facebook put forth a $3 billion dollar offer to purchase Snapchat. Snapchat is a picture messaging platform where users send pictures and then after a few seconds they disappear. Despite the fact that Snapchat has only been around for roughly 2 years it has grown to about 9 million users sending over 350 million Snaps daily. The choice to decline the offer comes from founder Evan Spiegel. According to a source with knowledge of the matter, the company is currently being sought after by multiple investors, including a $4 billion dollar investment proposal from China’s Tencent Holdings.

Facebook’s eagerness to absorb Snapchat stems from the fact that there is a decline in Facebook popularity. Facebook recently acquired photo media platform Instagram for $1 billion dollars, and looks to continue in the social media battle.

With it’s recent IPO Twitter becomes more and more threatening; added to that is the fact that Facebook isn’t alone in it’s ambitions to expand. Twitter recently bought Vine, a short-video social media app.

In order to maintain company growth and profitability I agree with Facebook’s attack on purchasing Snapchat, Instagram and whichever social media platforms are on the rise. Apps are simply “trending” in nature and a fad only lasts for so long. It’s smart to try and create a monopoly, or at least aim for oligopoly. I see Facebook vs Twitter as a parallel to Coke vs Pepsi. May the best team win.

I completely agree with Natalie Hayworth’s statement, saying that it is a bold and risky move to hold out and decline Facebook’s offer. If Snapchat loses market power to the next trendy app then a mistake would have been made, but on the contrary if Snapchat remains a dominant social media app it’s payoff’s will be huge.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/nataliehayworth/2013/11/17/winner-or-loser/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/facebook-snapchat-3-billion_n_4268859.html