Mark Zuckerberg's first successful 'hit' for Elon Musk
Meta says more than 30 million people have signed up to use Threads, the app it developed to compete directly with Twitter. Similar to Twitter, Threads is a text chat and discussion app. Users can post posts up to 500 characters long, including links, photos and videos. Posts can be replied to, liked or shared, just like Twitter.
After hitting over 10 million signups on July 5, Threads hit 30 million just a day later, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, said in posts on the app itself. However, the billionaire also admitted that the application is still experiencing many problems as users reflect, such as errors in loading profiles and posts.
A direct hit to Twitter
The Facebook founder also said that he has not thought about monetizing Threads when it does not have 1 billion users, so the application is currently ad-free. Threads has reached number one in downloads on the Apple app store in the UK and US. Meta has yet to launch its app in the EU, the company's second-largest market by revenue.
Meta's new app is directly linked to Instagram, a photo-sharing platform with over 2 billion users. Users cannot currently subscribe to Threads without an Instagram account.
Many people call this a "Twitter killer", directly threatening Elon Musk's platform. Since Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion last October, the platform has been in constant crisis with users and advertisers. Most recently, Twitter faced a backlash from users when it limited the number of posts an account could see per day.
“The goal is to keep the platform user-friendly. That's one reason why Twitter was never as successful as I thought it would be, and we wanted to do it differently," Zuckerberg advertised Threads and did not forget to criticize Twitter.
Since Musk took over, many Twitter users have been looking for alternatives to the platform because they disagree with Musk's stance on censorship or with having to pay for some previously free features.
An Old post by Meta
Meta is also notorious for "copying" features of rival platforms, one example being the "Stories" feature, which copies a smaller competitor's vertical video sharing feature Snap. Recently, the tech giant also created "Reels", a short video format similar to TikTok's.
But in the case of Threads, the app's advantage is linking to Instagram. The new app allows users to bring in all of their existing followers from Instagram and create an instant network. Some users said the integration helped them have content to watch as soon as they signed up, avoiding the "slow launch" problem with new social media platforms.
Unlike early Twitter, which displayed all posts in chronological order, Threads uses an algorithmic timeline default, prioritizing posts with higher engagement and sometimes showing new ones. posts from people the user hasn't followed.
The move to launch Threads comes amid a rivalry between two of Silicon Valley's most famous billionaires. Last month, Musk wrote on his platform that he was "ready for a cage fight" with Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg accepted the challenge, but so far it is unclear whether or not the match will take place or when.
After hitting over 10 million signups on July 5, Threads hit 30 million just a day later, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, said in posts on the app itself. However, the billionaire also admitted that the application is still experiencing many problems as users reflect, such as errors in loading profiles and posts.
A direct hit to Twitter
The Facebook founder also said that he has not thought about monetizing Threads when it does not have 1 billion users, so the application is currently ad-free. Threads has reached number one in downloads on the Apple app store in the UK and US. Meta has yet to launch its app in the EU, the company's second-largest market by revenue.
Meta's new app is directly linked to Instagram, a photo-sharing platform with over 2 billion users. Users cannot currently subscribe to Threads without an Instagram account.
Many people call this a "Twitter killer", directly threatening Elon Musk's platform. Since Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion last October, the platform has been in constant crisis with users and advertisers. Most recently, Twitter faced a backlash from users when it limited the number of posts an account could see per day.
“The goal is to keep the platform user-friendly. That's one reason why Twitter was never as successful as I thought it would be, and we wanted to do it differently," Zuckerberg advertised Threads and did not forget to criticize Twitter.
Since Musk took over, many Twitter users have been looking for alternatives to the platform because they disagree with Musk's stance on censorship or with having to pay for some previously free features.
An Old post by Meta
Meta is also notorious for "copying" features of rival platforms, one example being the "Stories" feature, which copies a smaller competitor's vertical video sharing feature Snap. Recently, the tech giant also created "Reels", a short video format similar to TikTok's.
But in the case of Threads, the app's advantage is linking to Instagram. The new app allows users to bring in all of their existing followers from Instagram and create an instant network. Some users said the integration helped them have content to watch as soon as they signed up, avoiding the "slow launch" problem with new social media platforms.
Unlike early Twitter, which displayed all posts in chronological order, Threads uses an algorithmic timeline default, prioritizing posts with higher engagement and sometimes showing new ones. posts from people the user hasn't followed.
The move to launch Threads comes amid a rivalry between two of Silicon Valley's most famous billionaires. Last month, Musk wrote on his platform that he was "ready for a cage fight" with Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg accepted the challenge, but so far it is unclear whether or not the match will take place or when.
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