Snapchat CEO talks about the fierce competition among social media platforms, stating that smart glasses will be an essential item for interacting with the real world.

In the beautiful sunshine of Los Angeles, Snap (Snapchat) CEO Evan Spiegel (Evan Spiegel) accepted an interview with Bloomberg's Emily Chang, discussing his entrepreneurial story, company development, and future plans. This young entrepreneur not only enables Snap to compete with TikTok and Meta, but is also preparing to lead the company in finding new directions amid fierce competition in the social networking space, especially in the fields of smart glasses and augmented reality (AR). Spiegel is ready to compete with giants like Apple, Google, and Meta, striving to bring this cutting-edge technology to the public.

Snapchat makes sending photos and videos fun with its self-destruct feature.

The logo of Snapchat is a ghost that appears and disappears at any time, which is very different from social media platforms like Meta and TikTok that emphasize “leaving footprints” to increase traffic. Spiegel's original idea for founding Snap was how to make instant messaging more fun and interactive. The app was initially named Peekaboo, and Spiegel drew a little ghost in his university dorm, which became the prototype for the logo.

The success of Snapchat was not achieved overnight. The initial design of Snapchat was not based on being a social networking site; there was no desktop version. Instead, it started as a mobile app, purely aimed at solving a small problem: how to send photos more quickly. It also allowed for creative expression by adding exaggerated filters and stickers to the photos. This creative idea quickly resonated with users, and Snapchat thus pioneered the concept of instant, self-destructing messages, rapidly attracting a large number of young users, and even being imitated by Instagram.

Spiegel has a clear understanding of Snapchat's early success. He believes that the app has changed the way people relate to photos, transforming them from mere recording tools into a means of communication, allowing users to become everyday creators. This transformation is not limited to sending messages but extends to every moment in daily life. Snapchat not only created the Stories feature but also changed the way photos and videos are captured, making people's social interactions more immediate and vivid.

Spiegel was inspired by a conversation with Huang Renxun.

For Spiegel, the development process of Snap was filled with uncertainty and challenges. He recalled that in the early days of the company, Snap chose to avoid the competition and pressure of Silicon Valley, setting up its first office in a small house on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, a community that was skeptical about Snap's rise. However, these early hard times deeply shaped the foundation of Spiegel and the company culture. In his view, Snap was not just about creating an application, but about reshaping how people use technology to interact and communicate.

With the rise of Snapchat, Spiegel became one of the youngest billionaires in the world, which brought him immense pressure from fame and wealth. He reflects on having grown up in a rigid environment, where he only liked to read, which helped him stay calm and make rational decisions when facing challenges in the company's development. Despite the challenges and pressures that came his way, Spiegel did not lose his direction; instead, it strengthened his determination to develop Snap into a global technology company.

Spiegel talked with Huang Renxun, and when Huang Renxun first had the concept of “GPU”, all the hardware and software on the market were incompatible. However, it turned out that this “innovative product” with no chance became a key factor in the development of AI.

Snap heavily invests in augmented reality smart glasses development technology.

In the realm of social media, Snap has always faced fierce competition from other giants. Companies like Meta, Google, and Apple are actively investing in similar augmented reality smart glasses and have successively launched their own AR technologies and smart glasses. In the face of such strong competitors, Spiegel still chooses to increase investment in consumer-grade hardware and focuses on augmented reality technology as a key development for the future.

For him, augmented reality represents the technological innovation of the future, and smart glasses are at the heart of the revolution. He stated that this transformation is crucial for Snap, meaning that users will shift from screen-based interactions to a deeper integration with the real world. Spiegel, who majored in product design and has a great interest in product development, expressed that Snap will be dedicated to promoting the popularization of AR technology, as smartphones enable users to have genuine interactions with the physical world.

Despite this, Snap still faces many challenges, especially from competitors, with particular pressure coming from TikTok. The global success of TikTok poses a direct threat to Snap. Spiegel admitted that TikTok has strong funding and a user base that includes Chinese users, which Snap cannot access, allowing TikTok to capture a significant market share in the competition. Nevertheless, Spiegel is confident about Snap's future and emphasizes that their competitive advantage lies in their hard-to-replicate technology and unique platform characteristics.

Snap rejects Zuckerberg's acquisition

Reflecting on past challenges, Spiegel talked about the $30 billion acquisition proposal made by Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg back then. At that time, the Snap team chose to decline, which became an important turning point in Snap's growth journey. Spiegel stated that they faced immense pressure that year, but the team always believed that Snap had greater development potential and hoped to build their own globally influential enterprise.

Today, Snap is not only a company with a market value of billions of dollars, but it continues to lead the innovation trends in social media. Despite facing fierce competition from other giants, Spiegel still maintains the passion and belief he had in the early days of the startup. He constantly emphasizes that Snap's mission is to enable people to express themselves more authentically, making the world more interactive and fun through innovative technology. In the future, Snap will continue to fight against the increasingly fierce market competition with its unique perspective and unwavering belief, striving to achieve breakthroughs in the fields of smart glasses and AR technology.

Spiegel believes that future social media will be more integrated into daily life, enabling people to connect, share, and interact anytime and anywhere. Current social platforms allow us to easily connect with those far away, but the challenge for the future will be how to help people reconnect with those around them. In the rapidly changing digital world, establishing closer and more authentic local community interactions will be key to the development of future social media. This type of social media is not only an extension of the digital world but also seamlessly connects every moment in our lives, allowing us to care not just about the virtual world but to pay more attention to the people around us in reality, rediscovering the genuine connections between individuals.

In this article, Snapchat's CEO discusses the fierce competition among social media platforms, stating that smart glasses will be an essential tool for interacting with the real world. This was first reported by Chain News ABMedia.