“There should be a public conversations app with 1 billion-plus people on it,” Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday in a post on Threads. “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”
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New Delhi: Even as the proposed ‘cage fight’ between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg is still under the clouds, Meta Platforms Inc., has officially launched Threads to directly compete with Twitter. Threads offer users the ability to share text, links, and engage in conversations by replying to or reposting messages from fellow users.
In addition to these, Threads also enables users to seamlessly transfer their existing follower lists and account names from Instagram, Meta’s popular photo and video-sharing platform with a user base exceeding 2 billion, which includes renowned brands, celebrities, and content creators.
“There should be a public conversations app with 1 billion-plus people on it,” Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday in a post on Threads. “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”
The Meta chief has also tweeted for the first time in 11 years. Taking a swipe at Elon Musk, Zuckerberg posted the iconic Spider Man facing off meme on Thursday in an apparent reference to the roll out of Twitter’s substitute. No caption was added to the post.
According to Connor Hayes, a vice president of product quoted by Mint, many of Instagram’s influential users have been asking the company to make a text-based app.
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“Creators were telling us, ‘We want an alternative to what’s out there, and we don’t want to start over and have to build out a following from zero,’” Hayes said without mentioning Twitter specifically, the report said.
Both Instagram and Facebook, that come under Meta platforms, have gained a reputation for their track record of emulating products from emerging internet competitors, which has proven to be remarkably successful. For instance, the Reels feature by Instagram was developed as a direct rival to the popular viral video app TikTok, while its Stories feature was introduced following the rise of Snap Inc.’s Snapchat, which offers disappearing posts.
Facebook and Instagram both have indirectly competed with Twitter by attracting news publishers, politicians, and prominent individuals to prioritize posting on their platforms instead. This strategy aimed to capture user attention and engagement.
The launch of Threads could be considered as a significant milestone for Meta, as it is the first time the company is directly introducing a Twitter-like application, explicitly targeting the microblogging giant’s functionality and user base.
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Ever since Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October, the company has undergone significant changes including laying off numerous employees, implementing more relaxed content moderation policies, and subjecting users and advertisers to a series of technical difficulties.
