Instagram Stories
Instagram feature launched 2016 — direct copy of Snapchat Stories. 24-hour ephemeral posts. Kevin Systrom openly admitted they copied. Stories became Instagram's dominant engagement format within a year.
Snapchat became existentially threatened — Instagram had 800M users vs Snap 150M. Snapchat's stock has never recovered. Since: Stories on Facebook, WhatsApp Status, Twitter Fleets (killed 2021), YouTube Shorts. Format convergence: vertical-9:16, 15-sec video, swipe-to-skip. Modern brand-marketing default: post daily in stories. Stickers, polls, AMA sticker, music licensing. Highlights: pinned stories permanent on profile. Reels launched 2020 as the TikTok response.