When asked if he was scared of Facebook, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel just laughed
- Spiegel said Facebook's marketing strategies are "not sustainable."
- "People are going to copy your product if you build great stuff," Spiegel told analysts.
- Facebook has 1.9 billion users vs. 166 million for Snapchat.
On an earnings conference call with analysts late Wednesday, when an analyst asked if he was scared of Facebook, Spiegel laughed.
"Our overall strategy is to deliver creativity," Spiegel said.
"People are going to copy your product if you build great stuff," he said. "Just because Yahoo has a search box doesn't make it Google."
But Snap's Q1 earnings report suggests that Facebook's strategy is working.
The comments came after Snap's first report as a public company fell short of expectations on users and revenue.
Spiegel, whose stake in the company has made him a billionaire in the wake of Snap's huge IPO, also said he doesn't want to boost user growth using the same marketing strategies of Facebook, which he doesn't think are "sustainable over the long term."
"When we talk about growth ... we want to use creativity" to boost Snap's number of daily users, Spiegel said.
That's asking a lot from Snap investors, given that Facebook's habit of pushing email notifications to its users has helped make Facebook the world's largest social network.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap.
Watch: Trader says he'd rather be in facebook