Can Threads Unravel Twitter?

The Mark Zuckerberg-owned Meta launched Threads, a competitor to microblogging website Twitter and the billionaire made the announcement via his first tweet in a decade. You can’t miss the irony here as Threads has already crossed half a billion sign-ups. Of course, it is another matter that the early birds are already finding reasons to crib. 

For starters, users are uncomfortable with the requirement of having an Instagram account for onboarding. What’s more, in case your love story with Threads comes to a premature end, you may have to bid adieu to that Instagram account as well. “You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account,” says the supplemental privacy policy. 

Completing the Metaverse with Threads

Wonder whether the next step is to connect all of this to Facebook? Meta claims that the Threads profile is a part of the user’s Instagram account, which essentially means the company will cross-pollinate content and advertisements across these platforms. Users are surprised by this requirement though from a marketing point it makes a lot of sense. 

While Threads is a text-based conversation app, Instagram is a popular photo and video sharing platform with over two billion users. Zuckerberg himself explained that the idea behind Threads is to create a public conversation platform with a billion plus users. He goes on to say that Twitter had the opportunity to do so but “hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.” 

Hapless Twitter and a bunch of imitations

With Twitter on life-support and its new owner Elon Musk even asking trustworthy users to pay up to retain their blue tick, the emergence of competitors such as Mastodon and Bluesky as well as our home-grown Koo have enjoyed limited periods of buzz. While Mastodon makes sign-ups tough, Bluesky seems to be going exactly the way Twitter went. 

So, what exactly is Threads? Taylor Hatmaker says in an article published on TechCrunch that Threads isn’t Mastodon and “its elevated community of open-source enthusiasts”, nor will it be Bluesky and “its fleeting focus of glee and chaos that’s recently made some worrisome moderation missteps and remains mired in its ties with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey”.

For now, we aren’t clear what exactly is Threads and how it will pan out, especially given the need for an Instagram account to sign up. There seems to be chaos and celebration amongst people who were looking for an alternative to Twitter. But, for now it doesn’t appear as though Threads is going to be fun for long – at least not for the users. 

Brands should be the only ones excited

However, every brand manager would be grinning from ear to ear. For, it is highly likely that it follows Instagram’s model that encourages some proven styles that lend themselves to brand building and promotions. Take the case of most small D2C brands in India. They’re only on Instagram some of the owners we spoke to tell us that it works well for them. 

For now there are no ads on Threads but when Facebook acquired Instagram and the latter flourished virtually ad-free, it appears to be only a matter of time before the same ads get into our text-based content on Threads. Given that users have adapted to Instagram’s stable diet of ads, why would Meta refrain from using the same on Threads?

For all we know, Threads could become as chaotic or more than Instagram though it would matter little to those spending on ads in the hope of getting some buyers on their digital channels. Given Zuckerberg’s penchant for using existing ideas to expand his business, Threads too could get the two billion users that are already on Instagram. 

That is, if the courts in the US allow them to do so. Twitter has gone on record to state that it would enforce its intellectual property rights whereby former employees of Twitter are accused of using trade secrets to propagate Threads under the Meta brand. 

Looks like the battle would be juicer outside than in the actual business. This is a space we would be keenly observing in the weeks and months ahead.