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Comment by increment_i | Hacker News Reader

I'm inclined to agree. I was very bearish on Snapchat around the time they rejected the Facebook offer. But more than any other app right now, Snapchat is killing it with users. This is a what a product users love looks like.

On top of that, I've been consistently impressed with their technological prowess, even if the AR component seems somewhat inconsequential to me right now.

You better believe Snapchat is gunning for that top spot in social - that's what the IPO is about. If they're at or surpassed Facebook's level by 2020, I seriously would not be surprised.

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I'm bullish too, but any comparisons to Facebook are lazy. Snapchat and Facebook are completely orthogonal (the closer competition is Instagram, owned by FB, and Snapchat, but even then I would argue it is lazy to say they are direct competitors, ignoring the Instagram Stories product).

For better or worse Facebook is a piece of social infrastructure and utility. Everyone has Facebook. All the groups I know of are organized through Facebook. All of the events. And so on.

Yes but money is made through eyeballs and not infrastructure. The most money will go to the app that gets the most viewing.

> The most money will go to the app that gets the most viewing.

...and figures out how to draw consistent revenue from that. Snapchat is making $365m this year in revenue, projecting $1b next year, and has a newly launched ads API.

Completely anecdotal, but my siblings and cousins that are teens don't have Facebook, and most of their classmates don't either. It's weird to imagine a world where not everyone has Facebook, but I don't think it's as ubiquitous for those who grew up where alternatives existed, such as Snapchat and Instagram (even Twitter as well).

As teenagers with close friend circles, that's becoming more common. I wouldn't be surprised to see them pick up and get more involved with Facebook if/when they enter a larger community at college, or move to a new city, etc.

I have been facebook clean for almost 3 years. Never felt better!

>I've been consistently impressed with their technological prowess

Like what, the glasses or the apps? Would be interested to learn what they've done so well with on the software side.

I attribute their success to product design and knowing their market, but hadn't really thought of it as technical acumen.

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