Product Decision #7: How Instagram Co-opted Snapchat Stories

This is #7 in a collection of posts highlighting decisions made in tech to build and grow products.

Product Decision

In response to the growth of Snapchat and their Stories feature, Instagram decided to replicate the same exact experience for their own Stories feature. In “Stories”, Instagram saw a new format that can be plugged into their user base of 500 million monthly active users and drive engagement right off the bat. And unlike other companies who try to keep up with their competitors by adding their own spin on things, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom is not shy about giving credit where credit is due.

Details

Systrom explains his decision to recreate Stories on Instagram:

“Facebook invented feed, LinkedIn took on feed, Twitter took on feed, Instagram took on feed, and they all feel very different now and they serve very different purposes.[…]

And I think what you see is that every company looks around and adopts the best of the best formats or state-of-the-art technology. Snapchat adopted face filters that existed elsewhere first, right? And slideshows existed in other places, too. Flipagram was doing it for a while. So I think that’s the interesting part of the Valley. You can’t just recreate another product. But you can say ‘what’s really awesome about a format? And does it apply to our network?’”

Read the full article here.

Have you tried something similar at your company? If so, share your results in the comments.