Why are social media platforms so similar?
Are you feeling like the main social media platforms (think Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat) are blurring together? Do you remember when Twitter was the only place where you could live stream video content (it released Twitter Live in 2015)? Or when Snapchat created stories that disappeared after 24 hours for the first time in 2015. Or when Facebook was the only place where you could 'react' to a post (Facebook's liking/ thumbs up feature launched in 2009) (Anchor Digital)? Does it seem like as soon as one platform launches a new future, every platform has incorporated it into its latest update too? Well, they have! And there are various reasons for this phenomenon.
Why is this the case?
In the past few decades, social media has become extremely profitable, and the biggest platforms now represent some of the most influential companies in the world. Many of these platforms are ad-supported, which means that other companies pay to have their ads shown on them. And the more successful these ads are, the more the platform gets paid. As a result, these platforms are largely incentivized to encourage their users to spend more time on their platform(s) and less on their competitors. And one way to do this is by offering all the latest features of their competitors (Vox).
This means that whenever a new feature is released, other platforms pounce at recreating it and implementing it into their in-app experience. This has been happening for years, but now, more and more features are continuously being released, and platforms can replicate other's features at lightning speed. One of the most recent and notable examples of this is Instagram's attempt to recreate TikTok's short video set up by introducing Reels (learn more about this here). All of this has resulted in a large decline in originality and incentive to innovate, especially for small companies who don't have the power to retaliate when the big-name companies copy their ideas. And based on the monetary incentives these large companies have, this is unlikely to change anytime soon. Check out the graphic below that highlights just how similar the different platforms are in terms of the features they offer:
One platform for everything
Social media platforms also copy each other because many are striving to create a single, all-encompassing platform. Consider this: if a user enjoys using five different features but has to go to a different platform to use each one, then it would be useful if there was one single platform that offered all of these features. This is the mindset that platforms are using today – they all want to provide a single platform that can act as a one-stop-shop for everything. And that is precisely what is happening.
For example, today, out of all the time Americans spend on apps, 13% of that is spent on Facebook alone. And a key reason for this is because Facebook offers so many dang features! You can post 24-hour stories, shop, transfer money, connect with friends, post a status, react to content, build a community, send instant messages, check out your personalized news feed, the list goes on and on (Innovation Enterprise). The key takeaway is, if you can do all these things on one app, there is little incentive to try out other platforms that only offer, say, one of these features. And that's why these platform powerhouses, like Facebook, continue to be so powerful.
Have you noticed that the social media platforms you have used are blurring together, and unique features are becoming something of the past? If so, what's your reaction? Let us know in the comments. We would love to hear from you!
Written By: Leah Ross, AMR Digital Marketing, Copywriter