i'm confused by hand-wringing over snapchat bc they seem to have had a trivially copy-able product (no technical innovation, just an idea anyone could implement), so it's hard to blame others for copying it -- like, what did they expect to happen?
imo the more worrying story is pervasive acquisition of companies that do innovate technically, although this varies by sector (i'm curious why), e.g. amazon hasn't touched real estate yet