On Tuesday, Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) announced the addition of new camera tools and stories to its website, which CNBC says "look just like Shapchat's most popular tools." Monday, SNAP, Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) stock had rallied close to 5 percent on bullish analyst comments and coverage initiations with eight Wall Street research firms. With today's announcement from Facebook, SNAP stock has given back almost all of the yesterday's gains.
The Facebook photo app will be "embedded" directly on the website and is said to encourage users to take and share more photos.
Dozens of effects are available, including frames, interactive filters, and masks. Facebook has partnered with film studios like the makers of Despicable Me 3 to bring results incorporating the film's characters into the new Facebook photo service, as well as artists.
New camera tools, stories
Along with the camera tools, Facebook has added a "stories feature" that allows users to send images and videos that are available for 24 hours only, which CNBC described as the "same format that Snapchat pioneered." Another new feature has been dubbed "direct;" it allows users to share photos with specific friends, intended to be viewed one time only, and then automatically deleted. Facebook's management called Snapchat the "pioneer" of the stories space.
Previously, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, had introduced a Snapchat-like stories feature. Today's announcement brings the format into Facebook's website itself for the first time.The social networker has described the move as adapting to the way people are changing the way they communicate, choosing to use images, instead of text.
It has been noted that Facebook purchased Masquerade in March 2016 and that many of the features offered by the new camera tools are similar in function to those offered by the acquisition, seen competing with Snapchat's filters, as reported by Business Insider.
SNAP stock whipsawed on news
Despite comments from Mark Mahaney, with RBC Capital Markets, Monday, who believes that Snap can maintain triple-digit revenue growth for the next few years, SNAP stock has fallen by $0.82, or 3.4 percent, today, on average volume following the Facebook stories and camera tools announcement.
Observers had noted that when Facebook first offered shares publicly in 2012, it was already profitable, but that Snapchat is not forecast to deliver profits until 2020.
FB stock rallied on today's news, up $0.59, or 0.4 percent, close to a new all-time high, near $140.91. Since the 2012 IPO, FB stock has returned 268.8 percent, compared with a gain of 66.9 percent for the general market, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. SNAP stock trades about 33 percent above its March 1 IPO price.
