Snapchat's Evan Spiegel Takes Shots At Facebook, Instagram In A Leaked Memo: 'Social Media Is Dead'

In a recently leaked internal memo, Snap Inc.’s SNAP CEO, Evan Spiegel, rallied employees towards new objectives to overcome stagnant growth. The memo, a call to arms, was a clear critique of rival social media platforms and set the stage for the company’s strategic blueprint for 2024.

What Happened: Spiegel’s memo stressed the urgency to act amid several quarters of flat revenue growth, layoffs, and advertising sector challenges, Business Insider reported on Tuesday.

The CEO proclaimed Snapchat’s unique position as a “happy” social media platform and announced plans for user growth in developed markets, an iOS-centric approach, improved ad targeting performance, and unified content and ad interactions across Snapchat’s main features.

“Social Media is Dead. Long Live Snapchat!” Spiegel wrote.

“We’re certainly far from perfect, but while our competitors are connecting pedophiles, fueling insurrection, and recommending terrorist propaganda, we know that Snapchat makes people happy,” Spiegel wrote.

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Spiegel’s vision for Snap also included expansion into AR products, citing the expected increase in consumer AR glasses by the end of the decade. He positioned Snapchat as a solution to the “online popularity contest” prevalent on competitor platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

However, this apparent disdain for competitors led to some Snap employees voicing their discontent on Blind, an employee-only platform.

Why It Matters: Snap’s recent struggles, including layoffs within its product management team in November 2023, highlight the importance of this strategic shift. The company reorganization was intended to streamline operations and accelerate decision-making processes, but it’s clear that more needs to be done to reinvigorate growth.

Additionally, the potential of investing in early-stage companies like Snap has been underscored by a 26,000% return for Snapchat in just five years.

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