It looks like if Facebook can’t buy Snapchat they are just going to build their own instead. Snapchat is a messaging service that is popular with the youth because the messages or Snaps self-destruct in seconds after opening. In an era of privacy concerns and horror stories of embarrassing Facebook posts that live forever, this proposition has a lot of value with teens. That’s why Facebook tried to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion last week, but got turned away at the door. And Facebook seems to be losing popularity each day with the younger demographic saying that 13 and 14 year olds are using the service less during its investor conference call last month.
However, Instagram is still pretty popular with teen users, and is already considered a landing spot for people leaving Facebook. Given the successful strategy of Snapchat, Facebook is now rumored to be adding this private messaging capability to Instagram as well, but how long these messages will live is unclear but my guess would be longer than Snapchat.
The new messaging feature is likely to appear in the next version of Instagram according to “well-placed sources,” reported by GigaOm.
Also according to the Wall Street Journal, many surveys suggest teens say already prefer other modes of communication over Facebook because there are too many adults (like their parents) using the site.
