Snapchat's New Test: Grow Like Facebook, Without the Baggage
In today's social media industry, you essentially have two options: Die young, or live long enough to turn into Facebook.
Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, appears to be headed down the latter path. After a disappointing earnings report last week, which sent the company's stock tumbling by nearly 20 percent, Snap announced a sweeping strategy shift that contained more than a few hints of Facebook envy.
In an attempt to spur user growth, Snap's chief executive, Evan Spiegel, announced that Snapchat would be redesigned to make it easier to use. The app, which featured a minimalist design that appealed to teenagers while often perplexing their parents, will soon have a personalized feed that uses algorithms to show relevant stories to users, rather than making them sift through a reverse-chronological feed. Twitter made a similar change last year, also under pressure from Facebook.
Snap has also revamped its ad-buying process to be more like Facebook's, with ads that can be purchased through an automated system. It's hard to blame Snap, which declined to comment for this column, for going the Facebook route. Facebook and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, have been trying to copy Snapchat out of existence for years, and they might be succeeding.
Billy Gallagher, a former TechCrunch writer whose book on Snap's corporate history, "How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars," will come out next year, characterized the company's recent changes as "death by a thousand paper cuts." He told me that while investors might appreciate touches like an automated ad-buying system and a more intuitive app, Snapchat's core users could feel betrayed.
▍生词好句
essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃ(ə)li/: adv. 大体上；基本上；本质上
tumble /ˈtʌmb(ə)l/: vi. 暴跌
sweeping /ˈswiːpɪŋ/: adj. 大面积的；影响大的
hint /hɪnt/: n. 暗示
envy /ˈɛnvi/: n. 嫉妒
spur /spəː/: vt. 刺激
minimalist /ˈmɪnɪm(ə)lɪst/: adj. 极简主义的
perplex /pəˈplɛks/: vt. 使困惑
algorithm /ˈalɡərɪð(ə)m/: n. 算法
sift /sɪft/: vi. 筛选
reverse-chronological /rɪˈvəːs/ /krɒnəˈlɒdʒɪk(ə)l/: adj. 时间倒序的
feed /fiːd/: n. 推送；社交媒体上的内容条目
revamp /riːˈvamp/: vt. 翻新
automated system: 自动化系统
out of existence: 消失；不再存在
death by a thousand paper cuts: 小而多的伤害导致死亡
intuitive /ɪnˈtjuːɪtɪv/: adj. 使用简便的
betray /bɪˈtreɪ/: vt. 背叛