To put it simply, Twitter has threatened to sue Meta over Threads, Semafor, and several competitors to Twitter exist, and Zuckerberg has stated that the route to revenue is unknown. Meta’s Threads scooped up more than 30 million sign-ups within just 18 hours of its introduction on July 6, appearing as the first major challenge to Elon Musk’s Twitter, as it took use of its access to billions of Instagram users and a similar appearance to its competitor. Threads, dubbed the “Twitter-Killer,” was the top free app in Apple’s App Store in the United Kingdom and the United States on Thursday. Its debut comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Musk have been exchanging insults for months, including threatening to fight in a real-life mixed martial arts cage battle in Las Vegas.
“The cage match has begun, and Zuckerberg has delivered a devastating blow.” Insider Intelligence chief analyst Jasmine Enberg stated, “In many ways, it’s precisely what you’d expect from Meta: stellar craftsmanship and an easy-to-navigate user interface.” According to the website Semafor, Twitter replied on Thursday by filing a lawsuit against Meta, citing a letter given to Zuckerberg by a Twitter lawyer. Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Semafor story could not be confirmed immediately by Reuters.
Meta stated that no one on the Threads technical team previously worked for Twitter. Following Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the social networking site last year, which was followed by a series of disastrous choices that alienated both users and advertisers, a slew of competitors have emerged. Musk’s most recent step was to limit the amount of tweets that users may read every day. Analysts and experts believe Twitter’s mistakes open the door for a financially sound competitor like Meta Platforms (META.O), owing to its access to Instagram users and advertising prowess.
“Meta’s release of Threads came at a perfect moment to give it a fighting chance to take down Twitter,” said Niklas Myhr, professor of marketing at Chapman University, alluding to Twitter’s turbulence following its decision to limit the number of tweets users can view. “Threads will get off to a fast start because it is built on the Instagram platform, which has a massive user base, and if users adopt Threads, advertisers will be right behind.”
Other rivals have had mixed results. Mastodon, another Twitter-like programme, has 1.7 million active users every month, as per its website, whilst Bluesky, financed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has around 265,000 users. According to a statement made before Musk’s purchase, Twitter had 229 million monthly active users in May 2022. While Threads is a separate app, users can log in using their Instagram credentials, making it a natural fit for Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users. Threads’ introduction was plainly a first attempt at a service, since it still lacks Twitter’s bells and whistles.
“There should be a public conversations app featuring over a billion users.” Twitter has had the opportunity to do so but has failed to do so. “Hopefully,” Zuckerberg said on Threads, where he has reached a million followers. Threads lacks hashtag and keyword search functionality, therefore users cannot follow real-time events as on Twitter. It also lacks a direct messaging capability and a desktop version, which certain users, which include commercial organisations, require.
Some users, like tech critic Marques Brownlee, expressed a desire for a feed that only contained the individuals they follow. Currently, users have minimal control over the primary stream. In a post on Thursday, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was recruited by Musk in May to bolster advertiser trust, stated that “everyone’s voice matters” on the platform. “We are frequently imitated, but the Twitter community will never be duplicated.”
There are now no advertisements on the Threads app, and Zuckerberg stated that the firm would consider monetization until there was a clear road to 1 billion users. Threads’ revenue could benefit from existing ad connections with Instagram and Facebook, according to Pinar Yildirim, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “Facebook is a less risky bet than Twitter and a larger player in the advertising market.”
Threads, according to some experts, was inspired by Meta’s success in combining critical elements from platforms like as Snapchat and TikTok in the context of Instagram’s Stories and Reels. At least four brokerages increased their price targets for Meta, whose stock has already more than quadrupled in value this year. Meta shares were down 0.2% on Thursday, after jumping 3% on Wednesday ahead of Threads’ introduction.
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