Why Threads’ Early Success Might Not Last in the Long Run
Why Threads’ Early Success Might Not Last in the Long Run
A significant technology business that already has billions of users launches a brand-new social network. The corporation plans to ensure the success of its newest social platform by capitalising on the widespread use and widespread popularity of its existing products. It plans to achieve this while simultaneously destroying the app of a prominent competitor.
If you’re thinking that this sounds like Instagram’s new Threads app and its attempt to compete with Twitter, you’re mistaken. In 2011, Google had recently released a social network named Google+, which it intended to use as a “Facebook killer.” At the time, the year 2011 was in progress. Google presented the new site to a significant number of its customers who relied on the company’s search and other products, which resulted in an increase of more than 90 million members within the first year of Google+’s existence.
However, by the year 2018, Google+ has been consigned to the scrap heap of internet history. Despite having a vast user base, the internet search giant’s attempt at creating a social network was unsuccessful as more and more people gravitated towards Facebook and, later, Instagram and other social apps.
Throughout the course of Silicon Valley’s history, large technology companies have frequently grown into even larger technology enterprises by leveraging the inherent advantages that come with their scale. But as the example of Google+ demonstrates, size alone is not sufficient to ensure success in the fickle and fad-driven social media sector.
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer of Meta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, is currently up against this obstacle as he endeavours to unseat Twitter and establish Threads as the preeminent mobile application for real-time, public talks. If the history of technology is any indication, size and scale are strong footholds; nevertheless, in the end, they can only take you so far.
The steps that follow are significantly more difficult. Mr. Zuckerberg is hoping that individuals would be able to find friends and influencers on Threads in the same serendipitous and sometimes bizarre manner that Twitter was successful in accomplishing. It is necessary for him to ensure that Threads does not contain any scammers or spammers. In order for him to succeed, he needs users to have patience regarding the upcoming app changes.
“If you launch a gimmick app or something that isn’t fully featured quite yet, it might be counterproductive and you could see a lot of people churn right back out the door,” said Eric Seufert, an independent mobile analyst who regularly observes Meta’s apps. Seufert has been paying close attention to Meta’s apps.
At this point, it seems as though Threads has become an overnight success. On the Wednesday before last, Mark Zuckerberg announced that 10 million people had already signed up for the Threads app within hours of its release. On Monday, that number had climbed to 100 million people, an all-time high. It was the first app to do so in that time period, surpassing the chatbot ChatGPT, which garnered 100 million users within two months of its introduction, as reported by the analytics firm Similarweb. In addition, it was the first app to do so in that time frame.
The mobile analyst named Mr. Seufert described the data that Threads had picked up as “objectively impressive and unprecedented.”
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has shown signs of agitation in response to the growth of Threads. Threads, which currently has 100 million users, is soon approaching some of the last publicly available user numbers for Twitter. In July of 2017, Twitter said that it had 237.8 million users on a daily basis. This was four months prior to Mr. Musk purchasing the firm and taking it private.
Mr. Musk has done the necessary steps. Twitter issued a legal threat against Meta on the same day that Threads was shown to the public one week ago. The warning concerned the new app. Mr. Musk referred to Mr. Zuckerberg as a “cuck” in a tweet that he posted on Sunday. Then, he issued a challenge to Mr. Zuckerberg to compete in a contest to measure a particular body part and determine his was greater, and he accompanied the message with an emoji of a ruler. There has been no response from Mr. Zuckerberg.
(Before the announcement of Threads, Mr. Musk issued a separate challenge to Mr. Zuckerberg to compete in a “cage match.”)
Huge audiences are something that Mark Zuckerberg has in abundance at Meta, whereas Elon Musk lacks them at Twitter. More than three billion people log in to one or more of Mark Zuckerberg’s applications on a regular basis. These applications include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
Mr Zuckerberg has a wealth of experience in the field, having successfully persuaded millions of users of those apps to use another of the company’s apps. For example, in 2014 he deleted Facebook’s private messaging service from within the programme that was used to access the social network. Instead, he required users to download a separate app called Messenger in order to continue utilising the messaging service.
