The End of Snap and Tesla

Snapchat and Tesla were sold this week. They just don’t know it yet.

Editor’s Note: No Mercy/No Malice is a column from Professor Scott Galloway, where he shares various reflections on business, tech, and life on his mind each week.

Snap and Tesla were sold this week. They just don’t know it yet.

Snap

If every morning the four largest retailers — Walmart, Kroger, Home Depot, CVS — met, and their sole focus was putting #5, Target, out of business, then Target would go out of business. This is happening to Snap, the #5, as the four biggest apps — Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger — have their cannons squared on the “camera” company.

Instagram created an exact clone of Snapchat three years ago. Within three months, Stories had nearly as many users as Snapchat. Since that time Snap has seen its user growth drop to single digits; Instagram Stories’ growth rate per quarter averages to 33%. Snap has also provided the blueprint for Instagram’s march to becoming one of the most popular messaging apps in the world behind WhatsApp, Messenger, and WeChat. Instagram now has twice Snap’s user base.