According to analysts and industry experts, Meta’s Threads could swiftly become a serious threat to Elon Musk’s Twitter due to its easy access to billions of Instagram users, a comparable interface to its rival, and the social media giant’s advertising clout.
Threads, dubbed the “Twitter-Killer,” received 10 million sign-ups in the first seven hours of its introduction, with celebrities ranging from Kim Kardashian to Gordon Ramsay signing up.
Meta Platforms shares were up roughly 1% on Thursday, after closing 3% higher than the previous session ahead of the launch of Threads.
“Whether planned or not, Meta’s release of Threads came at the perfect time to give it a fighting chance to unseat Twitter,” said Niklas Myhr, a marketing professor at Chapman University, alluding to Twitter’s turbulence after it reduced the number of tweets users could see.
“Threads will get off to a fast start because it is built on the Instagram platform, which has a massive user base, and if users adopt Threads, advertisers will be right behind.”
While Threads is a separate app, users can log in using their Instagram credentials, making it a natural fit for Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users.
According to a statement made before Musk’s takeover of the social media network, Twitter had 229 million monthly active users in May 2022.
According to the company’s website, Mastodon boasts 1.7 million monthly active users, whereas Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey-backed Bluesky has roughly 265,000 members.
Threads, according to some experts, was inspired by Meta’s success in combining critical features from platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok in the case of Instagram’s Stories and Reels, respectively.
At least four brokerages increased their price targets for Meta, whose stock has already more than doubled in value this year.
“No doubt there will be bumps in the road, but Threads could provide support to Meta’s share price if it turns out to be a success, as its huge number of initial sign-ups suggests,” said Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor.
Threads, which is available in over 100 countries, was the top free app in Apple’s App Store in the United Kingdom and the United States, significantly surpassing Twitter.
The app, however, will not be available in the European Union for the time being until Meta determines how data exchange between the new platform and its Instagram app will be governed, according to Bloomberg News.
Threads were also among the popular topics on Twitter, as many users sent links to their profiles on the competitor app and memes, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who tweeted for the first time since 2012 on Wednesday.
The introduction was plainly a first attempt at a service, as it lacked Twitter’s bells and whistles.
Threads lack hashtag and keyword search functionality, therefore users cannot follow real-time events like on Twitter. It does not yet have a direct messaging capability and does not have a desktop version, which is required by some users, such as commercial organizations.
Some users, notably popular tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, have also expressed a desire for a feed that just contains the individuals they follow. Currently, users have little control over the primary stream.
Overall, analysts praised what they called a credible rival to Twitter, which has been rattled by Musk’s unexpected actions since acquiring it for $44 billion last year.
“There should be a public conversations app with over a billion users.” Twitter has had the opportunity to do so but has failed to do so. “Hopefully,” Zuckerberg stated on Threads.
