Facebook and Snapchat continue to trade punches as the growing rivalry shows no signs of slowing down. This time, it’s Mark Zuckerberg getting in some jabs. The social network founder is taking advantage of allegations claiming Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said his app was “only for rich people,” and that he didn’t want to expand into “poor countries like India and Spain.”
In an interview with TechCrunch, Zuckerberg smugly brought up his company’s dedication to serving not just the lucrative Western markets, but also those of developing nations. His comments don’t specifically call out Snapchat, but his careful wordplay says enough.
“I think one thing that people probably don’t think about as much as we do is innovation to serve everyone in the community, not just the high end, right?” Zuckerberg said.
He also brought up Facebook Lite, a version of the application released in 2015 to give access to those with older cell phones and poor Wi-Fi. That app is now used by more than 200 million people in just over a year, according to Zuckerberg.
The Facebook CEO was responding to a question regarding the perception that Facebook is becoming less innovative. That sentiment grew out of the company’s willingness to release a number of shameless Snapchat rip-offs, including the new Stories feature.
Despite what others think (including Spiegel’s fiancée), Zuckerberg says he is “not that worried” about Facebook looking like its rival because it does different kinds of work in different areas.
Snap is still wrestling with the surprising allegations against its CEO. It called the claims “ridiculous,” and emphasized to Business Insider that its app was free and available worldwide to download. But a number of 1-star reviews from users in India are already inflicting damage and giving Facebook an early upper hand.
H/T Business Insider