It's interesting how Facebook has such a keen eye to spot the next pivot and move their giant ship inch by inch methodically in the right direction. They did it with newsfeed for the main site, main site to mobile transition(albeit with the html5 fiasco thrown in for a year), carving out messenger(and pivoting it to another screen to show ads) and now pivoting Instagram to subsume Snapchat.
Kinda how Netflix vs HBO is a question of - how fast can Netflix become HBO before HBO becomes Netflix. Instagram is definitely trying their best to have part of its identity be Snapchat. What is Snapchat trying to become rapidly before Instagram subsumes Snapchat? The walls are closing in fast(like it happened with Twitter) and if they don't figure out the answer soon they will suffer the same fate.
Facebook's strategy certainly has worked so far, but I doubt it's sustainable. Every time Instagram copies a Snapchat feature it is a pivot from their original vision. Unless Snapchat starts copying Instagram, over time the two will diverge, one is a focused and coherent product, the other becomes a feature laden beast.
Also internally I can't imagine how the Instagram engineers feel about their roadmap being "continue to copy and shoehorn Snapchat features into our app".
There's likely a bunch of factors that go into it. Might even be a score that is updated based on your purchase, return history, length of having a prime membership, amount spent on amazon etc.
Its sad how very few if any news orgs will mention his recent loss of his mother and serious injuries to his father in a boat accident as a potential cause for taking a leave of absence.
I became aware of that tragedy since NYT sent me a news alert about it on a Sunday morning. I recall follow-up NYT articles where this was mentioned as a potential cause as well. However, most other news sources that I have read have not mentioned this aspect.
>Winter 1866-1867: One of the harshest winters in history, featuring 44 storms and averaging 18 feet of snow at the summit. Despite this, the Chinese workers continued work on the tunnels. The Tunnel 6 labor force by this time is almost completely made up of Chinese. Avalanches pose particular danger, as demonstrated at Strong’s Canyon (Tunnels 11 and 12) known as Camp 4, which included 2 gangs of Chinese and a gang of culvert men.[16]
Kinda how Netflix vs HBO is a question of - how fast can Netflix become HBO before HBO becomes Netflix. Instagram is definitely trying their best to have part of its identity be Snapchat. What is Snapchat trying to become rapidly before Instagram subsumes Snapchat? The walls are closing in fast(like it happened with Twitter) and if they don't figure out the answer soon they will suffer the same fate.