Mark Zuckerbergs’ company Meta has recently introduced Threads, a new service that can be seen as a rival to Elon Musks’ Twitter. Just like Twitter. Threads permit users to share brief written updates. Impressively. Within its first two hours. Threads managed to attract a whopping 2 million sign-ups. Given its close association with Instagram.
Threads have the potential to draw in an established user base and offer opportunities for advertising. Consequently. Twitters struggling business might face some major challenges from this new development. As a result of the impending launch. Metas stock experienced a 3% increase. While Musks Twitter has been dealing with several issues such as the departure of advertisers and controversies surrounding content moderation.
In a surprising turn of events, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (formerly known as Facebook), dealt another blow to Elon Musk in their ongoing rivalry. The tech billionaires have been engaged in a heated competition, and now Zuckerberg has launched Threads, an eagerly awaited companion service to Instagram, aiming to challenge Twitter.
Zuckerberg made his grand entrance to the new app with a post that exclaimed, “Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads,” accompanied by a fire emoji. Within the first two hours of its launch, the app garnered an impressive 2 million sign-ups.
Threads, much like Twitter, allow users to share short text posts that can be liked, reposted, and replied to. However, it lacks direct messaging capabilities. According to a Meta blog post, the app supports posts of up to 500 characters, including links, photos, and videos up to five minutes long.
The app is available in over 100 countries on both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, according to the blog post.
Industry analysts have expressed enthusiasm over the possibility that Threads’ integration with Instagram could provide it with a ready-made user base and advertising platform. This could potentially divert advertising revenue from Twitter at a time when the microblogging company’s new CEO is attempting to revive its struggling business.
While Threads was launched as a standalone app, users can conveniently log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same accounts. This seamless integration may make it an easy addition to the routines of Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users.
“Investors can’t help but be a little excited about the prospect that Meta really has a ‘Twitter-Killer’,” commented Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment firm AJ Bell.
On the day of the launch, Meta’s stock rose by 3%, outperforming other competing tech companies as the broader market experienced a slight decline.
The debut of Threads coincides with the ongoing rivalry between Zuckerberg and Musk, who have been exchanging barbs for months and even jokingly threatened to engage in a mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas.
The timing seems opportune for Meta to land a significant blow, as Musk’s erratic decision-making has been causing turmoil within Twitter. Last October, Musk acquired Twitter for a staggering $44 billion, but the platform’s value has since plummeted. It has faced advertiser exodus, staff cuts, and controversies surrounding content moderation. In its latest move, Twitter has limited the number of tweets users can read per day.
Addressing these challenges in subsequent Threads posts, Zuckerberg stated, “I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully, we will.”
The integration with Instagram incorporates several privacy considerations. Threads users who sign up through Instagram are automatically labeled on their Instagram profile, although they have the option to hide it. The app also offers different privacy settings for each platform.
Within minutes of the launch, prominent brands like Billboard, HBO, NPR, and Netflix, as well as celebrities like Shakira and former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, had set up accounts. A review by Reuters did not find any ads displayed on the app.
To promote Threads, Meta has reached out to social media influencers, encouraging them to join the new app and post at least twice a day. Influential CEO Ryan Detert confirmed that the company had expressed appreciation for early access in their initial posts.
Threads benefits from the struggles of other would-be Twitter competitors who failed to capitalize on the platform’s setbacks. Although several emerging alternatives like Mastodon, Post, Truth Social, and T2 have attempted to lure Twitter users away, they remain relatively small thus far.
Bluesky, a new service backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, launched its invite-only beta in February and initially generated significant interest with users vying for access codes. As of April, the platform claimed to have 50,000 users. Dorsey also supported another platform called Nostr.
However, Meta’s history raises doubts about the success of Threads. The company has experienced multiple failures with standalone copycat apps in the past, notably the Lasso app aimed at competing with short video rival TikTok. Meta eventually incorporated a short video tool, Reels, directly into Instagram and recently downsized its experimental app design unit as part of cost-cutting measures.
Another potential challenge for Threads is the difference in the news-oriented culture between Twitter and the more visually focused Instagram. Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, pointed out that Meta has been shifting away from news and political content, emphasizing lighter fare in Reels videos. In regulatory battles over proposed payments to news publishers, the company has downplayed the significance of news content on its platforms.
However, Enberg noted that Meta only needs to convince a fraction of Instagram’s user base to adopt Threads in order to rival Twitter in size. “The reality is that Meta doesn’t need to convert Twitter power users into Threads users” to succeed, she explained.
In response to a user’s prediction of Twitter’s demise shortly after the launch of Threads, Zuckerberg advised patience, saying, “We’re only in the opening moments of the first round here.”
