SnapChat CEO Evan Spiegel Takes a Dig at Meta on LinkedIn, Mocking Feature Replication

TDT | Manama

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Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has stirred up social media with a playful jab at Mark Zuckerberg's Meta. He has added the title “VP Product @ Meta” to his LinkedIn profile. This tongue-in-cheek update is a nod to Meta’s long-standing habit of replicating features from Spiegel’s company, Snap Inc., particularly its flagship app, Snapchat.

In the “About” section of his LinkedIn profile, Spiegel humorously lists himself as a “Loving husband, father of four boys, VP Product @ Meta.” This cheeky remark calls attention to the rivalry between Snapchat and Meta, especially in light of the numerous features Meta has borrowed from Snapchat over the years.

Spiegel, who co-founded Snap and turned it into a billion-dollar company by age 25, has seen his company’s innovative ideas become the blueprint for many of Meta’s popular products. The most notable example dates back to 2016 when Meta launched Instagram Stories, a feature that mirrored Snapchat's Stories—allowing users to post photos and videos that vanish after 24 hours. Instagram Stories was later rolled out to Facebook and WhatsApp, expanding its reach across Meta’s platform ecosystem.

In the same period, Facebook Messenger adopted a camera interface that bore a striking resemblance to Snapchat’s own camera screen. Meta further leaned into Snapchat’s influence with the 2017 launch of “Direct,” a messaging feature for sending disappearing photos and videos to friends—a concept that closely mirrored Snapchat's direct messaging.

While Spiegel’s LinkedIn update may be lighthearted, it’s rooted in years of frustration for Snap’s leadership. From 2016 to 2017, Meta’s apps appeared to copy many of Snapchat’s most successful features, prompting many to wonder how Snap would respond to the competition.

Spiegel’s dig has sparked widespread amusement on social media, as followers and tech enthusiasts shared the irony of a leader in social media innovation using his own platform to poke fun at a competitor. The rivalry between Snap and Meta is far from new, but Spiegel’s playful approach signals that he’s not backing down anytime soon.

Born in 1990 in Los Angeles, Spiegel is known for his bold decisions, including dropping out of Stanford University in 2011 to pursue Snapchat full-time. Under his leadership, Snap has pioneered several trends in the social media landscape, including Stories and augmented reality (AR) filters—many of which were subsequently adopted by Meta and other competitors.

Spiegel’s recent LinkedIn update adds a fresh chapter to the ongoing saga between Snap and Meta, highlighting his ongoing leadership in social media innovation, even as Meta attempts to follow his company’s lead.