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Meta App “Threads” Struggles to Compete with Twitter as Zuckerberg’s New Venture Flops
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Threads, the app touted as the potential “Twitter killer,” may not be living up to the high hopes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had for it, as was reported by the New York Post. Since its initial buzz as the toast of the social media world, Threads has seen a significant decline in users, according to analytics company Similarweb, the report indicated.
The data reveals a drastic drop in Threads’ daily active users, plummeting from a peak of 49 million on July 7 to 23.6 million on July 14, as was reported by the Post. In comparison, Twitter, owned by Elon Musk, had approximately 107 million users on July 14. The report added that these numbers have put a dent in Zuckerberg’s excitement after boasting about the app’s 100 million downloads since its launch on July 5.
Zuckerberg’s initial enthusiasm at what he perceived was the success of Threads with social media users as a formidable competitor to Twitter was largely based on ego driven rhetoric, according to sources that are familiar with Zuckerberg. The social media titan operated Meta’s predecessor, Facebook, under a hard and fast policy of selective censorship and views that were deemed either repugnant or those that did not comport with the ‘woke, progressive’ agenda by his staff of censors were immediately removed and the person posting them usually ended up in “Facebook Jail.”
The rivalry between Meta and Twitter has escalated, with Musk’s legal team threatening to sue Meta for allegedly stealing trade secrets by hiring former Twitter employees, the Post report said. However, these legal battles may not be the most pressing concern for Threads’ future if its current trajectory continues.
Not only are fewer people logging on to Threads, but users are also spending less time on the app. According to information provided in the Post report, on July 14, users spent only six minutes on Threads, compared to 21 minutes on July 7. In contrast, Twitter’s average total time spent when Threads peaked was about 25 minutes, according to Similarweb.
Interestingly, Twitter’s daily active users remained virtually unchanged even during Threads’ peak days, the Post reported. However, time spent on the platform declined by 4.3%. Musk and Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s CEO, have been combating negative perceptions about the platform’s future, with Musk sharing a graph showing a 3.5% increase in platform usage, the report indicated.
The 52-year-old billionaire shared the data days after Yaccarino condemned reports that the platform’s traffic was “tanking” with a post that said: “Last week we had our largest usage day since February,” the Post reported.
“There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it,” she added, appearing to take a jab at Threads.
While it’s still too early to determine Threads’ ultimate fate, Similarweb’s data doesn’t account for Apple users. Nevertheless, the Post reported that it points out that Twitter’s retention of new users has declined on Android, dropping from 16% in May 2023 to 19% in May 2022. In contrast, new Instagram users’ loyalty has remained steady at about 40% year-over-year, which could be beneficial for Threads due to its close ties to Instagram, as was reported by the Post.
However, Threads faced criticism from users when they discovered that deleting their Threads account would also mean deleting their Instagram account due to their interconnectedness, the Post report stated. Furthermore, Threads’ bare-bones features were not what users expected, dampening their enthusiasm for a “Twitter 2.0” experience.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, seemed unfazed by the drop in users and denied that Threads sought to mimic Twitter, the Post reported. Instead, he emphasized their focus on building new features and improving performance. Mosseri addressed the app’s missing features in a separate post, indicating their goal of creating a public square for communities on Instagram while not necessarily competing with Twitter, according to the report.
On July 13, Mosseri said that “our focus right now is not engagement,” but rather “building new features, dialing in performance and improving ranking, the Post reported.
He also addressed Threads’ “obvious missing features, like a following feed, the edit button and post search” in a separate post.
“The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter,” Mosseri also posted, as was reported by the Post.
Mark Zuckerberg also chimed in, expressing the desire to keep Threads friendly as it expands. The Post reported that Facebook’s similar move away from news by replacing the “Facebook News” tab with “Feeds” further supports the trend of prioritizing user interactions with friends and groups over news organizations.
Zuckerberg said that “the goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success.”
Threads faces challenges in retaining users and delivering on their promises. Whether it will become a hit or a flop remains to be seen, but for now, it’s clear that the app has a long way to go to match Twitter’s popularity and engagement.
