We are not normally fans of a big company stomping on a little one, but when the little company is Snapchat we make an exception.
Facebook has just announced that WhatsApp now has 175 million daily active users for their Status Snapchat clone feature, more than Snapchat’s last reported 160 million daily active users from last year.
WhatsApp has more than 1.2 billion monthly active users overall for their service and it seems many of the users on the network found it more convenient to use the new Status “stories” feature than starting a new network on Snapchat. Earlier in the year Instagram’s Stories feature also overtook Snapchat’s user base, with 200 million daily active users, likely due to the same reason, with further reports that advertisers preferred that network over Snapchat. Snapchat’s share price is down more than 20% from their $27.09 high over the last 3 months.
There is no love lost between Snapchat and Windows Phone users, with their CEO Evan Spiegel noted to have made disparaging remarks about the OS, and the company frustrating efforts to bring a client to Windows Phone. Hopefully they, like their trademark ephemeral photos, will also soon make a disappearance.
