Important Note
Tech Narratives was a subscription website, which offered expert commentary on the day's top tech news from Jan Dawson, along with various other features, for $10/month. As of Monday October 16, 2017, it will no longer be updated. An archive of past content will remain available for the time being. I've written more about this change in the post immediately below, and also here.
China Hits Qualcomm With Fine – The New York Times (Feb 9, 2015)
The context for this fine against Qualcomm is a broader crackdown by the Chinese authorities on US-based companies which compete with local ones or which are perceived to be gaining an overly dominant position in China. It would therefore also be easy to dismiss this action as more representative of a broader Chinese policy than of any wrongdoing on Qualcomm’s part. However, given all that’s happened since in Korea, the US, and China, it’s now somewhat harder to dismiss this case as being utterly without merit. There’s still the question of whether Qualcomm has genuinely done something wrong or whether Apple is merely flexing its muscles through seeking common cause with friendly regulators, but this Chinese action can now be seen as the beginning of something much bigger rather than a one-off, even if it took quite some time for that to become clear.
via New York Times
Facebook Slingshot is much more than a Snapchat clone – The Verge (Jun 17, 2014)
This article suggests that Slingshot was not just a Snapchat clone, and it did have additional, original features too, but it was almost universally seen as yet another attempt by Facebook to copy Snapchat, following its failed attempt to buy the company in 2013. Slingshot was finally killed off when Facebook shut down its Creative Labs team in late 2015.
via The Verge
Snapchat Spurned $3 Billion Acquisition Offer from Facebook – WSJ (Nov 13, 2013)
This is, as far as we know, the only time Facebook actually tried to buy Snapchat outright, and although Facebook had attempted to clone Snapchat for the first time in 2012, most of its efforts to copy features or the entire app have come since, starting in 2014 and accelerating dramatically in 2016.
via WSJ
Facebook Launches Snapchat Competitor “Poke”, An iOS App For Sending Expiring Text, Photos, And Videos – TechCrunch (Dec 21, 2012)
Facebook’s first attempt to copy Snapchat came in the form of its Poke app, launched in late 2012 and eventually killed off for good in May 2014 after it failed to gain meaningful traction.
via TechCrunch