The rivalry between Facebook and Snap reached a very public boiling point in recent weeks as Facebook ramped up its blitz to mimic Snapchat’s app. It’s even gotten a little nasty. There have been public shots like saucy anti-Facebook rants from Evan Spiegel’s fiancée, model Miranda Kerr, and jabs at Instagram by Snapchat’s product chief Tom Conrad. Facebook employees have been passing around memes making light of the “Snapchatization” of the company’s apps.
But the rivalry—including new behind-the-scenes details told to The Information—is equally interesting for the big questions it exposes for each, as the companies search for their next phase of growth and to define the next generation of the consumer internet.