Meta’s Twitter copycat isn’t quite living up to expectations.
Days after launching on July 5th, engagement has dropped off a cliff.
Time spent on the app declined 60% from its peak a few days prior,
according to the software company SensorTower.
And this was during the first week it launched.
Similarly, software company SimilarWeb reported Threads’ daily active users
dropped from 49 million to 24 million in a week.
It’s even more disappointing considering Threads
had the greatest start of any social media app ever.
It reached 100 million users in five days - surpassing even the rapid rise of ChatGPT.
So, what went wrong?
While the initial interest may have appeared promising,
it’s possible this was somewhat misleading.
One factor contributing to the surge of sign-ups how easy it is to join.
I could easily get my puppy onto Threads by
signing up through her Instagram account with just a few clicks.
Additionally, Threads offers the feature of
transferring your Instagram followers directly onto the new platform.
This could have amplified the popularity of Threads,
giving a skewed perception of genuine user engagement.
Another aspect that’s problematic is that you can’t delete your
Threads account without deleting your Instagram account as well.
You can deactivate Threads, but you’re locked in unless you choose to delete both.
And privacy concerns are off the charts.
When I compare the privacy labels from Apple's App Store, I discovered that
Threads gathers more information than Twitter, including “sensitive info”.
That includes racial or ethnic data, sexual orientation, pregnancy or childbirth information,
disability, religious and philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, political opinion,
genetic information, or biometric data - which includes fingerprints and facial recognition data.
Because it collects so much data, Threads isn’t yet able to launch in Europe,
as collecting sensitive information requires a higher standard of legal consent in the EU.
Meta’s track record on privacy is far from clean.
Facebook is known for collecting user data and allowing advertisers to target them.
Besides privacy concerns, Threads has limited features.
Unlike Twitter, there’s no option of a home feed just for people you follow,
though such a feature is in the works.
Instead, the Threads algorithm pushes content from people you
don’t follow based on what it determines to be most engaging.
The goal is to keep you on the platform for longer,
exposing you to more ads when ads come to Threads.
Additionally, the inability to view posts chronologically on
the timeline or search for specific posts restricts the user experience.
The true success of imitators typically comes from offering
an improved version of the original product.
Like when Instagram took inspiration from Snapchat to create Instagram Stories.
Instagram added new features, such as the option to pause, rewind,
and fast-forward through stories, something that wasn’t available on Snapchat at the time.
This enhanced the user experience, and Instagram Stories surpassed Snapchat’s user base.
Threads, however, doesn’t really improve upon Twitter.
It mirrors Twitter - it’s hard to tell them apart - other than
for a few missing features mentioned earlier.
Meta’s sales pitch for Threads appears to be that it’s not Twitter.
Zuckerberg has been trying to brand Threads as a “kind” and
“friendly” place where politics and news apparently won’t be emphasized.
However, it's the back-and-forth on politics, news, and controversial
topics that makes Twitter so compelling, drawing people in and keeping them engaged.
By the way, I’d be grateful if you followed @Newsthink on Twitter. Link in description.
Tucker Carlson’s interview with Andrew Tate has been seen by 92 million users on Twitter.
Tate is a controversial figure who was banned from the platform prior to Musk taking over.
A big reason the SpaceX and Tesla CEO acquired Twitter for $44 billion was
because he felt freedom of speech had been restricted.
Twitter has been bracing for more competition.
About a week after Threads launched, Twitter started sharing ad revenue with creators,
beginning with a portion of the revenue earned from replies to their posts.
So Twitter is trying to incentivize people to post great content there, bolstering its appeal.
But maybe it doesn’t have to worry about the competition.
Will Threads end up in the graveyard of other failed Meta projects, like Lasso,
Facebook’s answer to TikTok, or Hobbi, its answer to Pinterest?
The huge drop in engagement so soon after launch suggests it’s headed
down that direction unless the app improves.
But maybe…this wasn’t about Threads but a bigger plan.
Threads could be part of Zuckerberg’s wider goal to build the metaverse, a virtual reality
space that enables users to interact with each other inside a computer-generated environment.
Meta says it plans to decentralize Threads, meaning it will work with other non-Meta
social networks, which aligns with Meta’s vision for the metaverse, a seamless online ecosystem
where interactions are not limited to one specific platform like Facebook.
The rivalry with Twitter is not confined to the virtual world.
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg may be stepping into an entirely different ring,
possibly fighting in an MMA-style match!
Who would you place your bet on? Let me know in the comments.
As fascinating as this fight would be,
I really do hope they’re not seriously injured as their tech companies need their big brains.
The brains behind their platforms are skilled engineers.
It’s the kind of skill that is so important to foster - especially today.
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Thanks for watching, I’m Cindy Pom.