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Washington: metaMark Zuckerberg, the special representative, dealt a blow to Elon Musk on Wednesday night, as the rivalry between the tech billionaires kicked off live with the long-awaited launch of Instagram. threads The platform, copy of Twitter.
“Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads,” Zuckerberg posted on the app, along with a fire emoji.
Analysts said investors were salivating over the possibility that Thread’s relationships with Instagram could give it a built-in user base and advertising rig. That could siphon advertising dollars from Twitter, whose new CEO is trying to revive the ailing microblogging company’s business.
While Themes launches as a standalone app, users can log in with their Instagram credentials and follow the same accounts, making it an easy addition to the existing habits of Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users.
“Investors can’t help but get a little excited about the possibility that Meta really has a ‘Twitter-Killer’,” said Danny Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment platform firm AJ Bell.
Meta stock closed up 3% on Wednesday before the launch, eclipsing gains made by rival tech companies as the broader market slumped.
The arrival of the leads comes after Zuckerberg and Musk traded barbs for months and even threatened to fight each other in a real-life mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas.
The timing is right for Meta to strike, as months of Musk’s chaotic decision-making have rocked Twitter.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, but its value has plummeted since then as it faced an exodus of advertisers amid deep hiring cuts and content moderation disputes.
While Meta will likely focus first on incremental users before incorporating on-threads advertising, big brands will “happy (invest) a good amount of ad spend on the platform” to seek refuge in their relative brand safety and benefit from the early buzz, he said. Matt Navarra, a social media consultant who has worked with Meta, Google, and Pinterest.
“We’re here to foster a positive and creative space for you to express your thoughts. This time, it’s all about the conversation,” reads a post on the official Threads account.
Brands like Billboard, HBO, and Variety have accounts created within minutes of launching, as have celebrities like Shakira and other well-known personalities like former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. According to a Reuters review, the app did not appear to display any ads.
In order to generate threads, Meta has been making overtures to social media influencers to attract them to the new app and encourage them to post at least twice a day, said Ryan Dirt, CEO of influencer marketing firm Influential.
Some thanked the company for early access in their initial posts.
The app also benefits from the failure of other potential Twitter competitors to take advantage of the service’s faltering. While a number of new and burgeoning competitors like Mastodon, Post, Truth Social, and T2 have tried to lure Twitter users away, all of them are still relatively young so far.
Bluesky, a new service backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, launched its invite-only beta in February and immediately caused a stir on Twitter, with users asking for access tokens. Its website says it has 50,000 users. Dorsey also supported another platform called Nostr.
But history works against Meta. It has had multiple failures launching standalone copycat apps in the past, most notably the Lasso app that aims to compete with short-form video competitor TikTok.
The company later integrated a live short video tool into Instagram and recently eliminated its unit tasked with building experimental apps as part of a cost-cutting drive.
Another potential knock against Topics, said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, is that the news-oriented culture on Twitter is different from that on Instagram, which is a much more visible platform.
“Twitter’s main use cases are still keeping up with global news and events,” Enberg said. “I find it hard to imagine that the most loyal Twitter users who go to Twitter for this kind of culture would defect and immediately jump to the threads.”
However, she said, Meta only needs to convince a quarter of Instagram users to join Thread in order to rival Twitter’s volume. “The truth is, Meta doesn’t need to turn Twitter power users into thread users.”
“Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads,” Zuckerberg posted on the app, along with a fire emoji.
Analysts said investors were salivating over the possibility that Thread’s relationships with Instagram could give it a built-in user base and advertising rig. That could siphon advertising dollars from Twitter, whose new CEO is trying to revive the ailing microblogging company’s business.
While Themes launches as a standalone app, users can log in with their Instagram credentials and follow the same accounts, making it an easy addition to the existing habits of Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users.
“Investors can’t help but get a little excited about the possibility that Meta really has a ‘Twitter-Killer’,” said Danny Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment platform firm AJ Bell.
Meta stock closed up 3% on Wednesday before the launch, eclipsing gains made by rival tech companies as the broader market slumped.
The arrival of the leads comes after Zuckerberg and Musk traded barbs for months and even threatened to fight each other in a real-life mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas.
The timing is right for Meta to strike, as months of Musk’s chaotic decision-making have rocked Twitter.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, but its value has plummeted since then as it faced an exodus of advertisers amid deep hiring cuts and content moderation disputes.
While Meta will likely focus first on incremental users before incorporating on-threads advertising, big brands will “happy (invest) a good amount of ad spend on the platform” to seek refuge in their relative brand safety and benefit from the early buzz, he said. Matt Navarra, a social media consultant who has worked with Meta, Google, and Pinterest.
“We’re here to foster a positive and creative space for you to express your thoughts. This time, it’s all about the conversation,” reads a post on the official Threads account.
Brands like Billboard, HBO, and Variety have accounts created within minutes of launching, as have celebrities like Shakira and other well-known personalities like former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. According to a Reuters review, the app did not appear to display any ads.
In order to generate threads, Meta has been making overtures to social media influencers to attract them to the new app and encourage them to post at least twice a day, said Ryan Dirt, CEO of influencer marketing firm Influential.
Some thanked the company for early access in their initial posts.
The app also benefits from the failure of other potential Twitter competitors to take advantage of the service’s faltering. While a number of new and burgeoning competitors like Mastodon, Post, Truth Social, and T2 have tried to lure Twitter users away, all of them are still relatively young so far.
Bluesky, a new service backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, launched its invite-only beta in February and immediately caused a stir on Twitter, with users asking for access tokens. Its website says it has 50,000 users. Dorsey also supported another platform called Nostr.
But history works against Meta. It has had multiple failures launching standalone copycat apps in the past, most notably the Lasso app that aims to compete with short-form video competitor TikTok.
The company later integrated a live short video tool into Instagram and recently eliminated its unit tasked with building experimental apps as part of a cost-cutting drive.
Another potential knock against Topics, said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, is that the news-oriented culture on Twitter is different from that on Instagram, which is a much more visible platform.
“Twitter’s main use cases are still keeping up with global news and events,” Enberg said. “I find it hard to imagine that the most loyal Twitter users who go to Twitter for this kind of culture would defect and immediately jump to the threads.”
However, she said, Meta only needs to convince a quarter of Instagram users to join Thread in order to rival Twitter’s volume. “The truth is, Meta doesn’t need to turn Twitter power users into thread users.”
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