Threads: What's the Deal with It?

Threads: A new social network? Or the Twitter killer, as CNN reviewed?

Mark Zuckerberg does not let us impress with his ability to copy the competition in his constant attempt to be "the one being" that is in control of all social networks.

In its beginnings, it was Facebook; then Facebook devoured Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram to evolve into Meta, proposed the Metaverse and finally threatened Twitter - perhaps one of its only competitors - in its own game with Threads.

The name is even ironic, like a low blow to the current owner of the blue bird's social network, Mr. Elon Musk.

Thread by Instagram became a world phenomenon in a matter of 1 day after being launched at 7:00 p.m. EDT. July 5, 2023, "the new social network" already had 10 million users just 7 hours after its launch.

Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg is rising after losses such as the massive layoffs and the amount of money his metaverse project has lost, and now, he challenges his only competitor to a battle that seems to be serious. In fact, Elon Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage fight after this event: That is something many people would pay to see!

With 100 million users currently subscribed, we at Codedesign wonder what the deal is with this new social network and go even deeper to see how it can affect the already battered Twitter network.

Read on to find out what happened!

CodeDesign is the leading digital marketing agency in Lisbon Portugal.

What is Threads?

If you entered Instagram last week, you might be curious about a new notification that one of your followers joined Threads. Initially, you may have thought it was just a new feature, but as soon as you log in, you notice that you're entering a "new social media platform," and please, pay attention to these"  "marks.

So, Threads is the new app from Meta, the father of other platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram. In its announcement, the official page describes the platform as "A New Way to Share With Text," more like a "micro-blogging platform" Does it ring any bell? Let's see.

In Threads, users can write 500 characters posts, share videos and images and even "retweet," sorry, "rethread?" any of their followers' threads. 

So, as we can no longer ignore that this is Twitter by Instagram, we can take Mark Zuckerberg's own words about its vision:

"The vision for Threads is to create an option and friendly public space for conversation. We hope to take what Instagram does best and create a new experience around text, ideas, and discussing what's on your mind."

Yep, it sounds like an Instagramable Twitter.

The login process is pretty straightforward as Instagram shows you a notification of its new app and then links your profile to your account directly, so everything is connected in the same place.

All this social media project started soon after Elon Musk acquired Twitter; at this time, Meta employees pitched Instagram Notes, a text-based feature for Instagram. Nevertheless, after declining this option, Meta's team decided to create an independent app focused on text, called in its early stages "Project92" and which became Threads.

It seems that Marck is one step closer to monopolizing the entire social media ecosystem.

Let's see what else is happening around it.

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Which Countries is Threads Available?

At this moment, Threads is available through the App Store or Apple Store in 100 countries, including the United States, Japan, Canada and most latin american countries.

Nevertheless, there is a big issue in the European Union, which is why the app isn't available... yet.

The Meta Platform is awaiting approval from the regulators in the European Union due to their "regulatory uncertainty" regarding the app's data collection policies.

As you may know, Marck Zuckerberg isn't new to data scandals and what Facebook has done with data from its users. But regarding Threads, there are certain data you are providing to the big social media company, and some of it is pretty suspicious, just to say. Among the information you agree to provide by entering this app, we have:

• Health information
• Location data
• Search and browsing history
• Contacts

Due to The General Data Protection Regulation, a European law that sets some boundaries for marketers and how they access data, it looks like Meta will have to wait some time to enter this territory, which could give Twitter some room to grow.

But now, how are things doing between Threads and Twitter? Is the "Threads VS Twitter" a real deal?

Keep scrolling to find out!

Is Threads a Threat to Twitter?

The story between Mark and Twitter is not something of 2023. Long before this, Mark was interested in buying the social platform, but they declined his offer, three times to be precise.

So, as a rejected ex-boyfriend or a "friend-zoned guy," Mark's best takeback was creating a social network identical to Twitter. That is resentment or competitiveness from where you want to see it.

But will Threads be Twitter's end? Or will it be just a short trend?

Well, many factors surround this case, but from a glimpse view, things could go wrong for Twitter, as Threads have a great chance to succeed.

First, we must address that many Twitter users hate the new policies that came with the mandate of Elon Musk. From frequent technical issues to making the check mark a $8 subscription-based service, many users of this platform are desperately looking for another venue. To address this significant issue, we can incorporate other microblogging media like Mastodon, or even BlueSky, backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, which had to pause new signups on Saturday, July 8, 2023, due to overwhelming interest.

So, we can say that the first battle these two titans will fight is the number of users. In the right corner, Threads has already reached 100 million users, which doesn't exceed the 250 million that Twitter has. However, Threads has an ace up its sleeve, and the company expects its 2 billion users worldwide to join this app.

Meta's strategy is "so killer" that the same platform doesn't let users delete their Thread account without forcibly deleting their Instagram account, which can be a painful blow to those already used to it. In this way, the policy does allow you to deactivate that account for a while, but nothing about deleting it.

About this beef between these two multi-millionaires, Marck put on a Thread post:

"It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully, we will."

To add more spiciness to this beef, Mark Zuckerberg responded when users asked if Threads would ever be bigger than Twitter.

"It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with one billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it," Zuckerberg wrote on Threads. "Hopefully, we will."

Of course, Twitter has not stood idly by in the face of this provocation, so they sent a letter to Meta alleging intellectual property theft and threatening a lawsuit over Threads. To this demand, Meta pushed back at the allegations.

Meanwhile, Twitter's new CEO Linda Yaccarino appeared to acknowledge Thread's launch and wrote in a tweet:

Twitter.

Even so, the resources that Meta has give it a clear advantage over Twitter, and its other competitors, which, as we have already seen in the case of BlueSky, cannot accept more users, which is why they have them on a waiting list.

Despite this, as Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri rightly says, the complicated thing, in this case, is not acquiring new users but instead making them stay, which is the main challenge for this app.

We can guess that people are now experiencing a honeymoon phase with Threads; everything is new - although quite familiar - and the problems that plague many networks are not yet within the platform. But, on the horizon, it looks like they can appear, and knowing the internet, sooner or later, it will arrive.

Even faithful users of Twitter reject the platform because they can no longer stand the dense atmosphere in it and the problem of bots or new policies. Even so, everybody expects that Threads will eventually have to deal with the erratic behavior of the internet ecosystem, which is full of fake news, conspiracy theories, hate messages and trolls around.

To add one more ingredient to this cocktail of "toxic internet behaviors" comes the fact that we are close to the United States elections in 2024, and the problems and discussions between right and left do not take long to manifest themselves in any social network.

Finally, putting ourselves on the side of Twitter, it is good to mention that for the moment, Threads lacks many features of this social platform, like a desktop version, direct messaging, trending topics and the option to edit posts.

Given this, Mosseri suggested that the platform is working to eventually roll out hashtags, a more robust search function, a feed of only accounts a user follows and potentially direct messaging.

But to all these, how are people on Twitter?

Are they doing fine?

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Is Twitter in Trouble?

Twitter fans may notice that things aren't as they were, and the leading cause is how Elon Musk handles things.

Twitter tends to stand out from its competitors by being the go-to platform for news and commentary. Even today, governments make their announcements first on Twitter.

Nevertheless, since Elon's acquisition, his policies and new features have done nothing more than botter all the users. 

The damage has been such that even Twitter's investors have marked down how the platform's value went down since he owned it. With Elon Musk, the platform went from $44 billion in late October, lowering to $20 billion these days, and experts who track the company say that this value that estimate is likely high.

Twitter has been the go-to social platform for real-time news and commentary for years. The presence of numerous celebrities, world leaders, businesspeople, and other high-profile power users always allowed the company to punch above its weight, along with the platform's openness and accessibility.

Under Musk, Twitter has stumbled through crisis after crisis, from mass layoffs that hit its content moderation teams to more frequent system outages to the rocky rollout of a controversial new verification system. Twitter's investors have repeatedly marked down the company's estimated value since the acquisition.

Even this very week, when all the Threads fuss began, a wave of bad decisions afflicts the platform.

First, on Friday, Twitter made Tweets inaccessible to anyone who wasn't logged in. The reason behind this, Elon tweeted, was that "temporary emergency measure" in response to "data pillage" by third parties, which was solved, but caused some backlash among users.

The next day, Musk announced further "temporary limits" that restricted the number of tweets users could view on any given day. This one can be incredibly annoying for users because since Musk added paid services to the platform, many are upset with the limitations. The announcement said that Twitter Blue subscribers would be limited to reading only 6,000 tweets daily, while non-subscribers could read just 600. This policy caused a backlash among users, so Musk was forced to augment this rate to 10,000 and 1,000 tweets a day, respectively.

To all this controversy, Linda Yaccarino later defended the decision by saying that this change would only affect a "small percentage" and that it wouldn't affect any advertising—more info in this Update on Twitter. 

Despite Twitter "fixing these issues," it didn't stop users from jumping to other platforms, and vivid proof of this was the rise of new subscribers for Mastodon and BlueSky. Recently, Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko said the platform's active userbase rose by 110,000 in a single day and by nearly 300,000 by the end of the weekend. As for BlueSky, a platform created by Jack Dorsey, who ran Twitter before MuskMusk, had to put people on the wait list due to the massive subscription.

But perhaps the one who does the most damage to the entire platform is the erratic and "troll" behavior of Elon Musk, who, after the last six months, has appeared in the tabloids for all the wrong reasons. From talking about conspiracies, to publicly mocking a Twitter worker with a disability who was unsure whether he'd been laid off, the new owner of Twitter is the one who seems to lead the company to disgrace. 

Here, we can appreciate the ingenuity - almost Machiavellian - of Mark Zuckerberg, who attacks his enemies just when they are having the worst time.

Final Thoughts.

We must finish this article by first saying: Wow, the world of social media is exciting!

Although Mark Zuckerberg is somewhat controversial, he knows how to move his cards at the right time, and his method of acting is implacable against his competitors.

On the other hand, it seems that Elon Musk has not managed to hit any of his decisions during his tenure on Twitter, which shows us that it is always good to have good advice when making decisions in a new place you arrive. No matter how much expertise he's had at companies like Space X, it seems Musk's modus operandi is far removed from what his Twitter users want. This results in several disillusioned users seeking solace on other microblogging platforms.

Finally, we cannot help but think that it would be somewhat disturbing if the dominance of large social networks remains in the hands of a single person, so Twitter carries the torch in this battle so that Zuckerberg does not stay with the monopoly of these media. 

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We know that monopoly is harmful and dangerous and that eliminating competition causes companies to stagnate and have no adversary to overcome.

While we wait for the outcome of the competition between these two multi-millionaires, we invite you to keep up to date with all our articles in Codedesign, where we talk about everything from marketing and business trends to strategies you can apply to your company. If you want more advice from experts in digital marketing, contact us now!

FAQS - Frequently Asked Questions

What is Threads, and how is it connected to Instagram?

Threads is a social media app developed by the team at Instagram, designed to focus on text-based conversations similar to Twitter. It allows users to post threads that can include short pieces of text, links, photos, videos, or any combination of them, with posts being up to 500 characters long. The app is closely integrated with Instagram, allowing users to import their profile details from Instagram and offering the option to auto-follow the same accounts they follow on Instagram. This integration provides a seamless user experience across both platforms, leveraging the existing Instagram user base to foster community and engagement on Threads.

How did Threads gain popularity so quickly?

Threads gained popularity rapidly, crossing the 100 million user mark in less than a week after its launch, becoming the fastest-growing app in history. This swift rise in popularity can be attributed to its direct connection with Instagram, which provided an existing user base ready to explore and engage with the new platform. The ability to easily follow Instagram connections on Threads and the app's introduction amid discussions about alternatives to Twitter likely contributed to its quick uptake among users looking for new social media experiences.

What features differentiate Threads from Twitter?

Threads differentiates itself from Twitter with several key features. It allows posts up to 500 characters, nearly double Twitter's limit, supports videos up to 5 minutes long, and automatically verifies users who are already verified on Instagram. Unlike Twitter, Threads does not have direct messaging, trending stories, or hashtags at launch but plans to introduce additional features such as search, hashtags, a following feed, graph syncing, fediverse support, and direct messaging in the future. Additionally, Threads was launched with features like the ability to repost or quote threads, share threads on Instagram, and a lack of ads, which are significant departures from Twitter's current offerings.

How is Threads impacting Twitter's user base and functionality?

While the specific impact of Threads on Twitter's user base and functionality is not detailed in the sources, the introduction of Threads into the social media landscape has introduced a new competitor for user attention, especially among those looking for alternatives to Twitter or a more integrated experience with Instagram. Threads' rapid growth and the features it offers could potentially influence user preferences and behaviors, prompting Twitter to innovate or adjust its offerings to retain and attract users. The direct competition could lead to shifts in user engagement across both platforms, with each needing to continually evolve to meet user expectations and needs.

What are the main challenges facing Threads in competing with Twitter?

While not explicitly outlined in the sources, the main challenges facing Threads in competing with Twitter likely include differentiating itself in a crowded social media market, attracting a diverse user base beyond the existing Instagram community, and addressing any concerns related to content moderation, data privacy, and the platform's long-term monetization strategy. As Threads evolves and adds new features, it will need to balance innovation with maintaining a user-friendly experience that aligns with the expectations of its rapidly growing user base.

How does the integration with Instagram influence Threads' user experience?

The integration with Instagram significantly influences Threads' user experience by allowing a seamless transition between the two platforms. Users can import their Instagram profile details to Threads, automatically follow their Instagram connections, and share content between Threads and Instagram stories. This tight integration helps users maintain their social connections across both platforms, potentially enhancing engagement and making it easier for Instagram users to adopt Threads. The familiarity of the user interface and the continuity of social interactions contribute to a cohesive user experience.

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