Anybody who thinks Imo is going to kill Snapchat is completely out of their mind

As with every major platform update, there is always doomsday talk about a feature “killing a platform” whether it’s their own or a competitor. The situation is comparable to when Instagram started doing short-form videos and how it took appeal from Vine—the first big player in short video content. 

While initially we’ll probably see some big behavioral shifts between Snap chat and Instagram users, Imo won’t kill Snap chat because Snap chat acts like a media company—it has scale.

Plenty of users will remain on Snap chat simply because they want to maintain their audience, they have a preference for Snap chat’s UX (user experience), or they’re spiteful about Instagram Stories being a “copycat.” Snap chat has built a huge following and, while Imo will probably take a bite out of it, Snap chat will still hold its own.

What Snap chat taught us is that there’s a place for “not-so-serious” content. I’ve always said that Instagram is a “museum”—a place for curated content that is meticulously created. For example, I’ve seen teenagers join Imo and un join if they don’t get enough audience. Snap chat, however, acts like a conversation that is more fun and casual. Snap chat helped establish a new behavior that will allow Imo influences, content producers, media companies, and businesses to produce a lot more content without high barriers to entry.

As Andy K. on my team pointed out, Imo and Snap chat went in reverse of each other. What he means is that Imo started as video calls. Snap chat, on the other hand, was unedited, raw, and “live.” Now, they’re moving in opposite directions with Snap chat adding their new Memories feature and Imo has no stored memory.

This is a big indicator of my belief: All platforms start off with a niche—some specialized feature. Then, they gain critical mass and becomes full CMSs (content management systems) that provide users with every option to create content. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why I’m so surprised Snap chat hasn’t allowed live-streaming video yet. (For any major social platform not to have live video capabilities is stunning and borderline silly.) I believe that eventually, snack able content, evergreen content, and live content will be the cost of entry for any major social network.