Jonah Engler talks about Facebook strategies in bettering their messenger service.

1. Facebook Messenger: Don't Call it a
Comeback
Last month at F8, the International Facebook Developer Conference, Facebook announced the
expansion of their Messenger platform to include 40 new apps, allowing users a myriad of ways
to create and share media all from the comfort of their chat screens.
With the advent of mobile-based social media, Facebook has found itself struggling in recent
years to retain a strong base of young users.
Released in September of 2011, Snapchat, the social app that allows users to send 'snaps', which
are photos and videos, decorated with captions and stickers, poses one of the biggest threats to
Facebook's market position.

2. Snapchat and other similar independently developed social apps draw younger users, cornering
niche markets and shaking the branding platform Facebook has stood on for so many years as
'the only social network you need.'
However, Facebook's battle is not in user retention, rather in growing with the shifting
demographics of smartphone users. A 2015 Pew study identified this demographic as an
increasingly younger one (18-29), relative to past years and one that has grown to use video
features at unprecedented levels.
The release of the new Facebook Messenger platform is an attempt on the part of the company to
better compete with other video-driven apps on the market, both domestically and
internationally.
WeChat, originally developed in China as a comprehensive instant messaging platform has
become a huge competitor to Facebook since its 2011 launch, especially in the Asian and
European markets.
Industry analysts have predicted Facebook's decision to integrate applications, as this update
comes with a string of acquisitions on the part of the social media giant. The company's 2012
purchase of Instagram, the photo-sharing network, negotiated for $1bn was one of the first of
many competitor and patent buy-outs. The long list includes instant messenger clients such as
WhatsApp, media sharing sites like Lightbox and eCommerce platform TheFind.
The Facebook Messenger platform will feature apps from video-sharing start-up Joya, such as
FlipLip, an app that combines popular features of video chat giant Skype and Snapchat. The app
is packed with exciting features to draw in younger users, such as fun camera effects, voice
distortion and a back-drop feature. Other options allow uses to edit their personal videos into
thematically coherent montages, or insert their likenesses into comic book-like graphics.

3. Messenger has had a hard time keeping up with changing trends, but the statistics speak for
themselves: the Facebook-backed Joya app cracked the top ten most downloaded apps in the
week after its launch.
Jonah Engler is a finance expert and a social media enthusiast from NYC.