Report: Facebook Is Building an App to Take On Snapchat (Again)

    Well if you can't beat 'em (or buy 'em), might as well try to beat 'em again. Not quite as catchy as the original, but according to a report by the Financial Times, it's Facebook's newest strategy when it comes to ephemera. We could very well be seeing a Facebook-brand Snapchat clone as early as this month.

    According to the Financial Times' report, Facebook's been spending the past few months on what its internally calling "Slingshot," a simple, self-destructing video chat app. And if it's anything like the other apps that have been coming out of Creative Labs, it's likely to be far better than Facebook's last (failed) Snapchat attempt, Poke.

    This is just the latest in Facebook's growing history of failed attempts to get in on the ephemeral app market. Last year, the company tried to buy Snapchat for a cool $3 billion before being rejected. So it's not at all surprising that a scorned Zuck put his team to work on a competitor, especially given Facebook's recent propensity for standalone apps.

    Rather than just beefing up the recently departed Poke, Slingshot would have users "tap or hold a contact's profile picture to instantly send a photo or short video, which can be viewed only once by the recipient." Of course, Facebook's not going to have an easy time pulling users away from Snapchat. [Financial Times]

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责任编辑： 郝斐然