Facebook's Poke Is a Wild Success—for Rival Snapchat
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Facebook thought it could kill Snapchat. Then it tried.
Snapchat, which lets people send self-deleting photos, videos, and texts to friends, has been enjoying a steady surge in popularity. It’s not hard to see why: Even if you’re not an elected official, the ability to send self-destructing, time-limited messages has an obvious appeal. A year after Snapchat’s September 2011 launch, users were sending 20 million ‘snaps’ each day, and the app ranked just behind YouTube and Instagram on AppData’s list of free photography apps.