Meta Inc. Has Tried To Copy Other Social Networks For Years Now…

2 min readJul 16, 2023

Do you recall:

• BranchOut (Meta’s equivalent of Linkedin);

• Slingshot (Meta’s equivalent of Snapchat);

• Bulletin (Meta’s equivalent of Substack);

• Collections (Meta’s equivalent of Pinterest);

• Lasso (Meta’s equivalent of TikTok);

• Loop (Meta’s equivalent of Vine);

• And so on…

All of those clones didn’t work.

The same was the case when:

• Diaspora* tried to create a decentralized version of Facebook;

• Ello tried to create an ad-free version of Facebook;

• MeWe tried to create a data-protected version of Facebook;

• Vero tried to create a chronological feed version of Instagram;

• Peach tried to create a combination of Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat;

• And so on…

Then Meta Inc. tried to clone features of other social platforms:

• Facebook and Instagram Stories, WhatsApp Status and Messenger Day (Meta’s equivalent of Snapchat);

• Facebook and Instagram Reels (Meta’s equivalent of TikTok);

• Friends Lists (Meta’s equivalent of Path);

• Facebook Live (Meta’s equivalent of Periscope);

• Neighborhoods (Meta’s equivalent of Nextdoor);

• Marketplace (Meta’s equivalent of eBay);

• Facebook Dating (Meta’s equivalent of Tinder);

• Messenger Day (Meta’s equivalent of WeChat);

• Workplace by Facebook (Meta’s equivalent of Slack);

• Messenger Rooms (Meta’s equivalent of Discord);

• Facebook Gaming (Meta’s equivalent of Twitch);

• Rooms (Meta’s equivalent of YikYak and Houseparty);

• And so on…

Then Facebook Live Audio Rooms (as well as Twitter Spaces and Discord’s Stage Channels) cloned Clubhouse’s entire platform as a feature!

These were much more successful, so much so that YouTube Created Shorts as their version of TikTok.

Google forced all Google account holders to have a Google+ account that tried to replicate Facebook.

Yet none have been as successful as Meta’s Twitter clone, Threads.

Creating a “successful” social network is hard!

Written by Orren Prunckun