If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Twitter should feel pretty good about itself. But Twitter does not see it that way. According to Forbes.com, the recently hacked Twitter documents posted on TechCrunch suggest that Twitter is afraid of Facebook. Over the past several months, Facebook has copied Twitter in at least ten ways. Twitter is worried that new Facebook features like real time search, a public statusphere, and the ability to provide SMS status updates will erode Twitter’s advantages.

Should Twitter be afraid of Facebook’s blatant imitation? Will this version of the so-called Microsoft strategy of copying competitors’ features and improving them prove to be Twitter’s downfall?

Why Twitter Is Too Worried About Facebook

Whether Twitter and Facebook are direct competitors is critical to the analysis. Both platforms are trying to build up their user base up to 1 billion users. Facebook is winning this race, with over 200 Facebook million users compared to over 10 million Twitter users. And both are competing for users’ internet time, which is finite. Presumably, more time on Facebook should equal less time on Twitter, and vice versa.

Nevertheless, Twitter might be too obsessed with Facebook.

1. It is silly to argue that Facebook can kill Twitter overnight by making Facebook statuses public.

Many Facebook users will opt to keep their status updates private. If Facebook does not give them that choice, Facebook users will stop using it. While nobody expects privacy on Twitter, many Facebook users value the privacy option and exercise it. Hand in hand with Facebook’s private option is the ability to limit access to personal information and photos to approved friends. Twitter users often follow people they do not know, and will likewise allow people they do not know to follow them. That is much less likely to happen on Facebook, since Facebook users must approve friend requests. Much more than Twitter, Facebook has faced controversy over privacy issues raised by its terms of service and the Facebook Platform and its recently announced push to get users to be less private.

2. Twitter and Facebook are used for different purposes.

More than Facebook, Twitter is used as a micro-blogging and information sharing platform. As a result, Twitter is used more as a news feed than Facebook. To be sure, Facebook users do post news. While Facebook is increasingly being used as a business networking and marketing platform, Facebook remains more of a platform than Twitter for sharing personal information, including interests, personal updates, and photos. Further, real time search of topics and news is much more important to Twitter users. Facebook is improving its real time search capabilities.

3. Facebook’s copying of Twitter is not improving the Facebook product.

Although Facebook has copied and/or tested many of Twitter’s features, it is unclear that Facebook users like or know how to use the new features. What’s the point of adding features that users do not or cannot use? Why is Facebook trying to become Twitter, or at least incorporate all of Twitter’s features? Unless Facebook users want such features, Facebook is fundamentally altering its product without any competitive benefit. This strategy exposes Facebook’s insecurities over its own product. Whether Facebook will undermine Twitter with this strategy remains to be seen.

Focus First On Making Your Own Business Strategy Work

It is unclear that Facebook’s imitation of Twitter is hurting Twitter. At the same time, considering that it will take Twitter 36 years to catch up with Facebook, perhaps Facebook should worry less about copying Twitter. Likewise, Twitter needs to improve its user retention rate and the percentage of users engaged with the platform.

Lacking a viable business model, both companies have more important things to worry about than each other. First and foremost, both companies should focus on making their own strategies work.

Douglas Y. Park
Twitter: @DougYPark