Sure, you can accuse Facebook of stealing Snapchat's idea and pledge to neglect Facebook's new feature out of a passionate allegiance to Snapchat. You can campaign for Snapchat and deem Facebook the social media villian.  It doesn't matter, though. What matters is Facebook just released its Facebook Stories feature on their mobile app and its initial release includes most of the features that made Snapchat unique; but, packaged into Facebook Stories is something that Snapchat has no answer for, prestige.

Facebook, founded in 2004, has deeper, more well-established-roots than Snapchat, founded in 2011. Facebook's 1.23 billion daily active users is nearly eight times more than the 158 million daily active users on Snapchat. Facebook has gained 500 million daily active users over the last two years. Snapchat? Sixty-seven million. Facebook reported $27.638 billion in revenue in 2016, significantly more than Snapchat's reported revenue of $404 million.

Continued growth, that's hard to match; especially when what you're known for is sniped, and implemented, by your giant competitor.

Though the initial release of Facebook Stories is missing a couple notable components which Snapchat is known for (geofilters and voice changers), it's close enough to already pose a threat to the story-sharing platform, especially when you consider the prestige of Facebook.

Unless Snapchat releases another dimension to their app, they could be in trouble.  Snapchat has survived Instagram Stories and story features in other Facebook-owned services like WhatsApp and Messenger. So other than prestige, why is Facebook Stories a bigger threat?

Filters

Snapchat's bread and butter are their lenses (filters). Instagram Stories lack filters, but Facebook Stories not only includes filter capabilities, they offer a lot more than Snapchat.

Posting is similar to Instagram Stories

As stated before, Snapchat has 158 million daily active users. Instagram has 400 million daily active users, 150 million of who use the stories feature daily. That's not a huge gap. Facebook Stories looks a lot like Instagram Stories, with the stories located at the top of the screen. There won't be a frustrating learning curve and the popularity of Instagram Stories will translate to Facebook Stories, surely surpassing the daily active users on Snapchat.

Videos can be longer 

Facebook allows users to video for up to 20 seconds when posting to stories. Instagram gives users 15 seconds. Snapchat only allows 10 seconds of video.

You can save stories to camera roll

This is an option for all three platforms, so nothing gained, nothing lost

You have more posting options

Facebook Stories integrates the ability to post a story directly to your timeline. If you want a story to stick around for longer than 24 hours, all you have to do is select that you want to post it. You can choose to post a story to your profile, your 24-hour story, or send as a direct message.

Ephemerality

It's obvious, Facebook landed a solid punch to the jaw of Snapchat, knocking them to their knees, by studying their strengths and incorporating them into their own regime. The ref has begun his 10-count on the bloodied Snapchat. One, two – they must find new strength in order to get up – three, four, five – they see their opponent standing over them, nearly unscathed – six, seven – they stumble to their knees, blood and sweat dripping down their face and into their eyes – eight, nine, te...– just before the final count, they use the ropes to pull themselves up. Weakened, disoriented, and bereft of their once unique fighting style, they continue on, knowing they must formulate a new tactic that will counter the seemingly constant onslaught of punches thrown at them.

They're against the ropes, but they're still in the fight.

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