Source: this summer Facebook tried to buy Snow, a Snapchat clone from Korean firm Naver, which is also behind chat app Line
Vine is Dead — Anyone remember Vine … Katie Collins / CNET : Facebook reportedly tried to buy Snow, a Snapchat-like app Tweets: Casey Newton / @caseynewton : @Techmeme you might say it flaked on the deal Amit Ranjan / @amitranjan : Facebook tries to buy anything that looks, smells or moves like Snapchat! -> “FB tried to buy Snapchat clone Snow” http://techcrunch.com/... Jon Russell / @jonrussell : Not just FB, Tencent and Alibaba are among many other companies to have made efforts to invest in or acquire Snow http://techcrunch.com/... Mark Bergen / @mhbergen : If at first Zuck don't succeed. http://techcrunch.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
By mid-2016 Facebook had already moved on camera tech once, when it bought selfie-filter app Masquerade to keep the app running while absorbing its technology. The reported summer run at Snow shows the same playbook aimed at a whole app rather than just its filters — and at one that mattered regionally because Snow was gaining traction in China, where Snapchat is blocked.
The bid failed, but Snow did not stay unclaimed: within weeks Naver-affiliated Line put $45M in for 25% of the Asia-focused app, keeping it inside the Korean chat-app orbit that also drew reported interest from Tencent and Alibaba. The later arc confirms what Facebook saw — Snow eventually stripped out its user-to-user messaging features and repositioned around selfies with fresh backing.
First-order effects
- Facebook loses this target but keeps its camera-feature strategy alive through Masquerade's standalone app and integrated filters, rather than owning a Snapchat surrogate outright.
- Snow's independence is immediately reinforced by Line's 25% stake, giving Naver's camp both capital and distribution across its Asian messaging footprint.
Second-order effects
- Reported interest from Tencent and Alibaba turns Snow into a contested asset among Asian internet giants, raising its strategic value precisely because it substitutes for a blocked Snapchat in China.
- Facebook's failed bid pushes it back toward feature-level acquisitions and internal cloning, a pattern that resurfaces years later when Facebook and Snap both approached Dubsmash about a possible nine-figure deal.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, ephemeral-messaging and camera apps stop being standalone businesses and become acquisition currency between platforms — Snap itself reportedly chased Secret before it shut down, and clone apps like Snow get absorbed into regional ecosystems rather than competing globally.
- The structural endpoint is regional consolidation: where the original platform cannot operate (Snapchat in China), local clones backed by domestic giants fill the space, and cross-border acquirers are locked out.
The trend: Social platforms increasingly respond to fast-moving rivals by acquiring or cloning their formats rather than out-building them, with regional clones becoming the fallback assets when the original is unavailable or unsellable.