Facebook tried to buy Snow, the 'Asian Snapchat'
Yet another ephemeral messaging startup turns down Mark Zuckerberg's cash.
Facebook was rebuffed in its attempts to buy Snapchat and Mark Zuckerberg's been like a jilted nerd ever since. The latest entry in his burn book comes courtesy of TechCrunch, which reveals that the social network tried to buy Snow, a Snapchat-esque service used in Asia. Snow was built by Navver, the South Korean company that created Line, to take advantage of Snapchat's apparent lack of interest in all things Asian.
But not even a big stack of cash and a personal phone call from the Zuck himself was enough to seal a deal. Instead, Naver's leaders believe that it can make Snow a big success without the help of the world's biggest social network. Similarly, Snapchat has seen its value increase dramatically post-Facebook, and is in line to go public next year at a valuation of nearly $25 billion.
Like every good high school revenge movie, however, Zuckerberg isn't going to let Snapchat ride off into the night. Facebook has been doing its best to rip off draw inspiration from its rival for the last few months with products like Instagram Stories. In addition, the core Facebook app now includes a selfie-filter camera (like Snapchat's) and disappearing images that fade away after 24 hours (like... you get the idea).
