Snap CEO Slams Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg in Scathing LinkedIn Post
In a surprise move, Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel took to LinkedIn to air his grievances against rival social media giant Meta, founded by Mark Zuckerberg. In a scathing post, Spiegel ridiculed the Meta CEO, suggesting that Zuckerberg’s role as a "VP, Product" for all of Facebook and Instagram’s features was a farce.
The post, which quickly went viral, poked fun at the idea that Zuckerberg’s behind-the-scenes influence had become so sprawling that he now needed to list it on his LinkedIn profile. Spiegel joked that the mere existence of the "VP, Product" title was a perfect example of the bloated, imitative nature of Meta’s product development.
"Who needs a single product manager for an entire company when you can have the CEO acting as ‘VP, Product’ for ten different social media platforms?" Spiegel quipped. "It’s like the ultimate corporate juggling act: ‘Hey, I’ll just make sure Instagram’s new features don’t overlap with Facebook’s existing ones… or will I?’"
Spiegel’s barb was aimed directly at the chaos that has long been rumored to exist within Meta’s product development process. As most people know, Facebook, Instagram, and a plethora of other social media platforms under the Meta umbrella have all started to mirror features from Snap, with some even incorporating similar vanishing messages, stories, and even Snappening-like technology.
Spiegel’s post continued, "I mean, who needs real innovation when you can just copy and paste? ‘Hey, let’s take that cool idea from Snap and make it for Instagram… just with fewer bugs and a bunch of extraneous ads!’ The alphabet soup of Meta is a never-ending soup of ‘book,’ ‘gram,’ and ‘face,’ but one thing’s for sure – we’re the ones still running the show when it comes to what it means to be an innovative social media company."
The post was seen as a tongue-in-cheek jab at Meta’s bottomless resources and seemingly endless ability to assimilate innovative features from other platforms. Many on LinkedIn praised Spiegel for his bold move, citing his dedication to the originality and quality that Snap has consistently demonstrated in its products.
For his part, Zuckerberg has yet to publicly respond to Spiegel’s jabs, but it’s likely that the rivalry between these two tech heavy-hitters will continue to play out on social media and in the public eye.
Full LinkedIn Post:
"I just checked my profile and I’m still the CEO of Snap. But I caught something that’s been bugging me – and it’s not just the copied features on Meta. Our friends at Meta now list their top dog, Mark, as ‘VP, Product’ for… well, everything. I mean, who needs a single product manager for an entire company when you can have the CEO acting as ‘VP, Product’ for ten different social media platforms? Who needs real innovation when you can just copy and paste? Full text? Stories? Snappening? You know the drill. So here’s to another year of leading the charge on innovation (not imitation) in the social media world. #Snap #Love #No Copies"
