Meta‘S subjects recorded more than 30 million signups within about 18 hours of its launch and emerged as the first real threat to Elon Musk Twitteras it exploited its access to billions Instagram user and a similar appearance to its rival.
Threads has been dubbed the “Twitter Killer” and was the top free provider apartment At Apple’s App Store in the UK and US on Thursday. His arrival comes after months of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Musk bickering with contradictions and even threatening to fight each other in a real mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas.
“The cage fight has started and Zuckerberg has dealt a heavy blow. In many ways, it’s exactly what you’d expect from Meta: excellent execution and an easy-to-navigate interface,” said Jasmine Enberg, Principal Analyst at Insider Intelligence.
Numerous competitors of Twitter have emerged after Musk bought Twitter in a deal worth US$44 billion (nearly Rs 3.64,130 million). social media platform over the past year, which was followed by a series of messy decisions that angered both users and advertisers. Musk’s latest move was to limit the number of tweets users can read per day.
Twitter’s stumbling blocks are making room for a well-funded competitor like Meta Platforms, analysts and pundits say, particularly given its access to Instagram users and advertising prowess.
“Meta’s release of Threads came at the perfect time to give the company a chance to unseat Twitter,” said Niklas Myhr, a professor of marketing at Chapman University, citing the unrest on Twitter after the number of Tweets users can see limited.
“Threads will be off to a flying start as it builds on the Instagram platform with its massive user base and as users take over Threads, advertisers will be close behind.”
Other competitors have had limited success. mastodonanother Twitter-like app, has 1.7 million monthly active users according to its website, while Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey endorses it Blue sky has about 265,000 users.
Twitter had 229 million monthly active users as of May 2022, according to a statement prior to Musk’s acquisition.
Certain restrictions apply to threads
While Threads is a standalone app, users can log in with their Instagram credentials, making it an easy addition to Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users.
Threads’ launch was clearly a first attempt at a service, as it currently lacks the bells and whistles of Twitter.
“There should be a public conversations app with more than a billion people. Twitter had the opportunity but didn’t make it. Hopefully we can do that,” Zuckerberg said on Threads, where he now has a million followers.
Threads doesn’t have hashtags and keyword search capabilities, which means users can’t follow real-time events like on Twitter. It also doesn’t yet have a direct messaging feature and lacks a desktop version that certain users, such as corporate organizations, rely on.
Some users, including tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, have reported the need for a feed that’s just about the people you follow. Users currently have little control over the main feed.
Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was hired by Musk in May to boost advertiser trust, said in a tweet Thursday that “everyone’s vote counts” on the app. “We are often imitated – but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”
There are currently no ads on the Threads app, and Zuckerberg said the company won’t consider monetization until there’s a clear path to 1 billion users.
Existing ad relationships from Instagram and Facebook should help Thread’s revenue, said Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
“Facebook is a less risky bet compared to Twitter and a bigger player in the advertising market.”
Some analysts said Threads is a reminder of Meta’s success in integrating key features from platforms like Snapchat And Tick tock in the case of Instagram’s Stories and Reels.
At least four brokers have raised their price target on Meta, whose shares have already more than doubled this year.
On Thursday, Meta shares fell 0.3 percent on a broader market sell-off after rising 3 percent on Wednesday ahead of Threads’ launch.
The app is available in over 100 countries, but Bloomberg News reported that it’s not currently rolling out in the European Union as Meta works out how to regulate data sharing between the new platform and their Instagram app.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
