A Note on Threads

Ok, it’s here. Instagram takes on Twitter with the launch of Threads and we’ve had 24 hours to play it with so here are my thoughts.?

Thrd

Threads launched to the world yesterday and has already garnered an enormous audience for a new app. Obviously powered by the might of Instagram and its 2.35 billion users the app is a direct competitor to and copy of Twitter.?

As with Twitter, you can post text and video and you can like, reply, repost or quote repost on a user's post (or thread - not sure what we are going to call it yet?). There are some obvious differences, namely that it takes all the privacy, security and sign-up features from Instagram. I’ve seen Angie Gifford, VP of EMEA at Meta talk up the nearly $16 billion investment Meta has made in industry-leading integrity efforts since 2016 as a major counter to other platforms (see Twitter). The integration with Instagram leads to a super seamless process of setting up an account and with one click you can instantly follow everyone on threads you currently follow on Instagram.?

There are a couple of nice ways they have connected both Threads and Instagram within the user experience. You now have a Threads badge on your Instagram profile which you can click on to follow someone on Threads and you can go direct to your or someone else’s Instagram direct from their Threads profile. You can also cross-post from Threads to Instagram - Add a post to Story or share a post to your feed.?

Scaling for fun

The key success of any new social platform is how quickly it can scale an audience and from early posts by both Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri boasting of 10M user sign-ups in just 7 hours followed by another announcement yesterday that they reached 30 million sign-ups it seems Threads is doing exactly that thanks to it’s piggybacking off the back of Instagram’s existing user base.?

What has been startling to see is not just the massive user growth over the last 24 hours but the number of high-profile celebrities, sports and film stars as well as major household brands posting to Threads. As Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram has said, “the real test is not if we can build up enough hype but if you all find it enough value in the app to keep using it over time.”

It seems Threads has skipped one of the major challenges all new social apps face building scale, helped in no small part by the current state of Twitter - especially with the timing of the launch following last weekend's Musk meltdown over limiting usage of Twitter. It seems millions of Twitter users have had enough and many are willing to give a new platform, even from Meta a try.?

The first 24 hours on Threads has felt a lot like the early days of Twitter, with people sharing fun, positive messages and trying to start meaningful conversations and debate. It’s also been interesting to see some of the people you follow on Instagram in text form especially if they didn’t post much or at all on Twitter. Being great on one platform does not always mean you’ll be great on another.?

It also leads me to my only big gripe with Threads at this early stage which is that your Instagram social graph is not the same as on Twitter. I follow plenty of writers, journalists, politicians and others that I wouldn’t think to follow on Instagram. By tying itself so closely to Instagram, Threads links the two despite them being very different forms of expression. Having to search a number of my favourite Twitter follows on Threads has been my only issue with the app so far.?

#WHF No hashtags?

This is one I’m really not that bothered about but plenty of people have said they wish there was the ability to search hashtags but this is something that Adam Mosseri has responded to users asking about saying that it was coming and that “lots of basics like that still missing”.?

Mosseri also suggested that a more detailed search, a home feed for the people you follow, and potentially even messaging is on its way but the team at Instagram clearly wanted to move fast given the current issues at Twitter.?

I actually like the simplicity of the current version as the experience feels pretty raw and encouraging of experimentation and early adopters are clearly seeing an upside and plenty of early engagement.???

One big issue for Threads is that it is not yet available in the EU due to the Digital Markets Act, a regulation that protects users from platforms which share their data with other platforms. Given the way in which Threads utilises data from Instagram, it's not clear when this will be resolved and users from across Europe will be able to access Threads? - which contains provisions for sharing user data across different platforms.??

This may be a challenge for Threads as I can only see more integration between the two platforms over time - i.e. once you follow a user on Threads they appear on Instagram as a recommended follow.?

Musk’s $44bn headache

But what does the launch of Threads mean for social media? Well, once all the hype had died down this really is bad news for Elon Musk and Twitter - if Threads continues to scale at the rate it is it won’t be long before they have parity with the bluebird.?

With attention and ad dollars draining away the rise of a genuine alternative platform at scale (sorry Mastadon you had your chance), Musk’s $44 billion acquisition is going to look ever more terrible business. The team at Meta clearly have big expectations and ambitions for Threads as Mark Zuckerberg has suggested that they won’t even consider monetisation until the app reaches 1 billion people!?

So for now, at least the platform will be free from advertising. In what is a unique position Instagram has the time and scope to grow without the reliance on advertising and even when it does hit a billion people they have an existing ad platform that to lean on in order to turbo-charge revenue. If he isn’t already Elon is going to be feeling the heat very soon!?

As I wrote earlier in the year with Reels on a rip (Time spent on Reels has grown more than 24% since Meta launched the TikTok-style clone) 2023 could be the year Instagram finds its groove again and the launch of Threads is only going to help cement engagement and relevance for Instagram.

Now back to wasting more of my Friday doomscrolling.

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