Meta launches ‘Twitter Killer’ Threads app By Reuters

© Reuters. Meta’s Threads app and Twitter logos are seen on this illustration taken July 4, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photograph

By Katie Paul

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg delivered a blow to Elon Musk on Wednesday night time, because the tech billionaires’ rivalry went reside with the launch of Instagram’s much-anticipated Threads platform, a clone of Twitter.

“Let’s do that. Welcome to Threads,” Zuckerberg posted on the app, together with a fireplace emoji.

Analysts mentioned traders had been salivating over the chance that Threads’ ties to Instagram would possibly give it a built-in consumer base and promoting equipment. That might siphon advert {dollars} from Twitter, whose new CEO is making an attempt to revive the microblogging firm’s struggling enterprise.

Whereas Threads launched as a standalone app, customers might log in utilizing their Instagram credentials and comply with the identical accounts, doubtlessly making it a simple addition to present habits for Instagram’s greater than 2 billion month-to-month energetic customers.

“Traders can not help however be somewhat excited concerning the prospect that Meta actually has a ‘Twitter-Killer’,” mentioned Danni Hewson, head of economic evaluation at funding platform agency AJ Bell.

Meta inventory closed up 3% on Wednesday forward of the launch, outpacing features by competitor tech firms because the broader market edged down.

Threads’ arrival comes after Zuckerberg and Musk have traded barbs for months and even threatened to battle one another in a real-life combined martial arts cage match in Las Vegas.

The timing is opportune for Meta to land a blow, as months of Musk’s chaotic decision-making has roiled Twitter.

Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion final October, however its worth has since plummeted because it confronted an exodus of advertisers amid deep staffing cuts and content material moderation controversies.

Whereas Meta is more likely to focus first on rising customers earlier than incorporating promoting on Threads, massive manufacturers “will fortunately (make investments) an excellent quantity of advert spend on the platform” to hunt refuge in its relative model security and capitalize on early buzz, mentioned Matt Navarra, a social media advisor who has labored with Meta, Google (NASDAQ:) and Pinterest (NYSE:).

“We’re right here to foster a constructive and inventive house so that you can categorical your concepts. This time, it is all about dialog,” mentioned a put up by the official Threads account.

Manufacturers like Billboard, HBO and Selection had accounts arrange inside minutes of launch, as did celebrities like Shakira and different well-known personalities equivalent to former Meta Chief Working Officer Sheryl Sandberg. The app didn’t seem to point out any adverts, based on a Reuters evaluate.

To construct up Threads, Meta has been making overtures to social media influencers to draw them to the brand new app and inspiring them to put up no less than twice a day, mentioned Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer advertising firm Influential.

Some thanked the corporate for early entry of their preliminary posts.

The app additionally advantages from the failure of different would-be Twitter rivals to reap the benefits of the service’s stumbles. Whereas quite a lot of new and burgeoning rivals equivalent to Mastodon, Submit, Reality Social and T2 have tried to lure Twitter customers away, all stay comparatively small to date.

Bluesky, a brand new service backed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, launched its invite-only beta in February and immediately created a buzz on Twitter, with customers clamoring to get entry codes. Its web site says it has 50,000 customers. Dorsey has additionally backed one other platform referred to as Nostr.

However historical past is working in opposition to Meta. It has suffered a number of failures launching standalone copycat apps prior to now, most notably its Lasso app geared toward competing with brief video rival TikTok.

The corporate later integrated a brief video instrument instantly into Instagram and extra lately wound down its unit tasked with designing experimental apps as a part of a cost-cutting drive.

One other potential strike in opposition to Threads is that the news-oriented tradition on Twitter is totally different from that on Instagram, a extra visible platform, mentioned Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.

“The principle use instances for Twitter nonetheless stay maintaining with information and world occasions,” mentioned Enberg. “I discover it onerous to think about that essentially the most avid loyal Twitter customers who go to Twitter for that sort of tradition will defect and go instantly to Threads.”

Nonetheless, she mentioned, Meta solely must persuade 1 / 4 of Instagram’s customers to hitch Threads with the intention to rival Twitter’s measurement. “The truth is that Meta would not must convert Twitter energy customers into Threads customers.”