Why Facebook Keeps Beating Every Rival: It’s the Network, of Course

The tech world just witnessed a robbery. The heist was so brazen you kind of had to admire it, even if it was pulled off with all the grace of a gas station stickup. Facebook barged into Snapchat’s happy Venice Beach, Calif., mansion, took a solid inventory of the goods, then lifted the crown jewels. First a version of Stories, the fun slide-show format that Snapchat created, appeared last year on Instagram, owned by Facebook. Then Snapchat’s features made their way to WhatsApp and Messenger, Facebook’s chat apps. A couple of weeks ago they got to the big leagues — Facebook’s main app — and the heist was complete.

https://www.nytimes.com