Facebook has been accused for cloning snapchat in many cases, and not for no reason. One of the first signals that Facebook was cloning Snapchat was in March 2016, when Facebook acquired the app MSQRD, where users were able to swap faces with different effects. This concept is comparable to snapchats ‘lens filters’. But this wasn’t the biggest attack on snapchat. Later on, in August, Facebook introduced the Story Modes on their daughter company Instagram. This nearly identical clone sets a step further towards the cloning of snapchat. (Heath, 2017)
Even though this cloning is not very classy and entrepreneurial, the list goes on. Recently, Facebook announced “Facebook Dating”, which is accused of having an unfair advantage over their competitors. The application doesn’t require any in-app purchases and is add-free, since Facebook is able to promote the application on both Facebook and Instagram. This further develops their company into one of the most powerful companies in the world. (Newton, 2019)
Besides Facebook, Amazon also is accused of cloning to further build their powerful company. Recently, Amazon introduced a shoe which is very similar to one of their top selling shoes: the Allbirds (Statt, 2019). Also in the case of Amazon, this isn’t just an incident. The offering of the Instant Pot close is another example. However, there is a big difference between these two examples. In the case of the Instant Pod, amazon sold the product as being a clone, whereas with the Allbirds clone Amazon sells the product as being their own design. Since Amazon accused of using the third party selling data they possess, the company is having an advantage over the original sellers (Bonifacic, 2019). This is be one of the reasons Amazon is able to charge half of the price, and delivering comparable quality.
While competition is conductive and should be encouraged, cloning products, especially in case of these big powerful companies, leads to unfair competition. In the past, companies seemed to care about ethics and some kind of class, while in recent years the market also shows these unsavoury tactics. Should this be part of the market forces or should the government intervene? Should these more and more powerful companies be restricted or is this a natural phenomenon which is part of the modern society?
References:
Bonifacic, I. (2019) ‘Not even Allbirds is safe from Amazon’s copycat ways’ Assessed on 01-10-2019 via https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/20/allbirds-amazon-copycat/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACjyjtTfslH3wK1eC1ZXRiKTXo97v9mRHOSRV_G-7_it4FhH9IhgAbO72RvHs6a8I8kSoqCmqnxSCwvzXyMFMpg9k1ZsF40KEPL7BbiWTebWHImNpflXf3UjLijQjSWER308xQH60Lt8osusnwMEhq7kKcCZty8TuohgsUlKX4Fx
Heath, A. (2017) ‘Here are all the times Facebook has copied Snapchat so far’. Assessed on 01-10-2019 via https://www.businessinsider.com/all-the-times-facebook-copied-snapchat-2017-5?international=true&r=US&IR=T
Newton, C. (2019) ‘Facebook Dating could have an unfair advantage over its competitors’ Assessed on 01-10-2019 via https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/9/6/20852035/facebook-dating-competition-antitrust-instagram-tinder-hinge
Statt, N. (2019) ‘Facebook may copy your app, but Amazon will copy your shoe’. Assessed on 02-10-2019 via https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2019/9/19/20874818/amazon-allbirds-shoe-clone-copy-sneaker-206-collective-private-label
