Submitted by Marshall Walker on
Facebook's motto seems to be if you can't beat them, buy them, and that's exactly what Mark Zuckerberg tried to do with when his copycat app Poke could not recreate the success of Snapchat. According to reports, Facebook is trying once again to compete with the popular messaging app after failing to acquire the company for a rumored $3 billion.
Zuckerberg has been secretly overseeing the development of an app known as "Slingshot", which "allows users to send short video messages with just a couple of taps," according to The Financial Times. The new video messaging app features a "simple and speedy user interface" and could be launched this month if Facebook plans to proceed with the project.
Facebook is desperately trying to dominate your mobile device. The company has already attempted and failed at launching its own doomed Android UI, and it eventually plans to force iPhone users to use its separate Messenger service by pulling the option to contact other users from its main app. Facebook has also copied Vine by adding the ability to upload 15-second videos to Instagram, and it recently released its own Flipboard-like service called Paper. Are you starting to see a pattern?
Numerous reports have indicated that Facebook is struggling to retain its younger users. The company has tried to offset the loss of its teenage demographic by buying popular services such as Instagram and WhatsApp. However, all attempts to launch its own services such as Poke seem to be failing. It will be interesting to see if "Slingshot" will do any better than Facebook's other mobile offerings, or if they launch it at all.