With more than 100 million sign-ups in five days, Elon Musk made a clear twitter twitter at Mark Zuckerberg for Meta’s new app, Threads Let’s say it’s the first week.
after months of speculationthe company behind Facebook Picked the perfect timing for a shameless move Twitter competitor, it is already the fastest growing app ever.
For many, this is the opportunity they’ve been waiting for ever since musk Bought the Bird app to pack their bags, say goodbye to their tweets, and hope their legions of followers will join them on their journey to another sunny place with data-hungry social media platforms another controversial billionaire.
But while it looks very much like Twitter, with its text-centric timeline encouraging replies and conversations, its first week has shown that you don’t have to dig too deep to find that the tactics aren’t all that similar.
Threads look very similar to Twitter.Image: Yuan
Who is using threads?
Threads Feels a bit like a summer beach shack filled with geeky cool people who wouldn’t look out of place in their new surroundings barbie movie.
Considering that the application is based on Instagram, influencers, celebrities and brands dominate. Among the most concerned are Kim Kardashian (Kim Kardashian), Mr. Beast (MrBeast) and Shakira (Shakira).
Elon Musk wants Twitter to be Oppenheimer In this movie analogy, this is a place for more serious conversations and thoughtful debates. Unfortunately, it has long felt like it was getting to the point where the nuclear bomb went off.
Like Twitter, Meta positions Threads as a place to “join the public conversation.”
Scroll through your timeline, though, and you’re more likely to find inspirational quotes, innocuous memes, travel posts, and excruciating interactions between brands than anything particularly meaningful.
As social media expert Matt Navarra puts it, it feels “a little boring.”
“It’s a very interesting place, and the lack of established norms is part of the appeal,” he said. “But some people find the content cheap and lacking in quality or purpose.
“It’s like Twitter with an Instagram wrapper.”
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Everything You Need to Know About Threads
The Instagram account was moved into Threads.Image: Yuan
no news is like less news
This divide is made all the more stark by Threads’ slogan, which seems to be “everything but news and politics.” Or if you’re going to talk about it, don’t bother the rest of us.
Early analysis by Website Planet suggests that news outlets have only 1% of Threads followers as Twitter. Brands are used more often and get more likes and replies than Twitter.
Adam Mosseri, head of Threads, posted: “Enough amazing communities to make a vibrant platform without getting into politics or hard news.”
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Who is Adam Mosseri, the owner of Instagram and Threads?
Adam Mosseri for Instagram and Threads
Mark Zuckerberg’s provocation to Musk certainly shows he sees Threads as a kind of twitter killerBut it’s hard to see Musk’s platform being killed off while still retaining a reputation as a place for breaking news.
At this time last summer, Boris Johnson’s prime ministership begins to crumble in real time on Twitter – It’s hard to see a similar event unfolding on Threads in its current form, with politicians largely absent from the platform.
“If the goal is to become a global town square, journalism and politics are key components,” Navarra said.
“It’s early days, Threads could have that, but it doesn’t feel like that’s the kind of content that’s going to work. Twitter’s relevance is hard to replicate.
“I don’t think people can delete Twitter yet, it’s going to be frustrating and painful for some!”
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Why Threads are so popular
Mark Zuckerberg certainly loves Threads’ quick start
Where are all the ads?
One of the most striking things about Threads is that there are still no ads – but enjoy it.
With record signups and high user engagement, the platform is ripe for advertisers, who are more tentative On spending money on Twitter under Musk Thanks to its lax stance on moderation – helping Meta start making big money from its new app.
Brands and companies, from Starbucks to Spotify, are already a big part of Threads, and if content on Twitter remains more stringent, their ads will have more confidence that they won’t appear next to questionable content.
Twitter has reinstated some banned accounts since Musk bought the platform, including Controversial influencer Andrew Tate and moreand this “Free speech absolutism” stance wins such as… well, Taliban. To be fair, safety-first brands would rather not risk appearing alongside them.
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How will Thread develop?
Threads owner Mosseri made it clear that Threads needs improvement – there’s no way to search for specific topics or terms, so it’s hard to find conversations you want to engage in.
The # tags are also missing. There’s also no option to tailor your timeline just to the people you follow, instead it mostly shows you content it thinks you’ll like (spoiler: I hope you like brands). For all the problems people have with Twitter, at least these fundamentals still hold.
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What is Threads missing at startup?
Why do so many apps share the same look and feel?
Navarre said the sudden launch of Threads (seems to be to take advantage of the impact of Threads) Musk decides to impose temporary reading restrictions on all Twitter accounts) and the rapid demand meant it didn’t have any chance of “building a sense of community or identity,” accommodating Instagram diehards and Twitter refugees.
Rebecca Tyrrell, director of social at LADbible Group, said that “there’s going to be a lot of Twitter users who don’t use Instagram and probably don’t embrace Threads,” and that many who join from Instagram have never used Twitter.
But you probably don’t curate your Instagram feed based on who has the best chats — and Threads shows why.
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Right now, your main motivation for opening Threads is probably curiosity – how are things going? Why are so many people signing up? This is the shiny new toy of social media, and the fear of missing out is strong.
“There’s always the possibility that the novelty wears off and when the dust settles, it’s not as exciting and people go back to normal behavior,” Navarra said.
In this case, normal behavior probably means going back to Twitter. It might feel like a bomb has gone off, but talk of its imminent demise seems — not for the first time — to be overblown.
Regardless, Threads is indeed enjoying its honeymoon period. Whether this means users should expect long-lasting marriages remains to be seen.