With Twitter already struggling, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg dealt Elon Musk another blow on Wednesday by launching Instagram's eagerly awaited companion app Threads, a competitor to Twitter. This intensified the internet billionaires' animosity.
"Let's do this ". In his first message on the app, Zuckerberg included a fire emoji and said, "Welcome to Threads. He said that in its first four hours, the app had received 5 million sign-ups.
The software is similar to Twitter in that it allows users to like, re-post, and reply to short text posts, but it does not include direct messaging. According to a post on the Meta blog, posts may contain up to 500 characters as well as links, images, and videos that are up to five minutes long.
According to the blog post, it is accessible on Google Play and Apple's Play Store in more than 100 nations.
Analysts claimed that investors were drooling at the prospect of Threads' connections to Instagram providing it with a built-in user base and advertising infrastructure. At a time when the new CEO of the microblogging startup is attempting to restore its struggling business, that may syphon advertising dollars from Twitter.
Although Threads is a stand-alone app, users can log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same profiles, potentially making it simple for Instagram's more than 2 billion monthly active users to incorporate it into their routines.
"Investors can't help but be a little excited about the prospect that Meta really has a 'Twitter-Killer'," said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment firm AJ Bell.
Ahead of the launch, Meta stock ended the day up 3%, outperforming gains made by rival tech firms despite a slight decline in the overall market.
The launch of Threads comes after months of teasing from Musk and Zuckerberg, who even vowed to engage in a live mixed martial arts cage bout in Las Vegas.
The timing is right for Meta to strike because Musk's erratic decision-making has roiled Twitter for months.
Twitter was purchased by Musk for $44 billion in October of last year, but its valuation has subsequently plunged as a result of an advertiser exodus, significant personnel reductions, and content moderation concerns. Its most recent action was restricting how many tweets users may read per day.
Later Threads posts by Zuckerberg addressed such issues. "I believe that an app for public talks with more than 1 billion users should exist. Twitter has had the chance to do this, but hasn't quite succeeded. Hopefully, he wrote, "we will.
There were multiple references to privacy issues in the Instagram integration. Instagram users who sign up for Threads have a badge added to their profile automatically, though they can choose to hide it. Additionally, they have the opportunity to select various privacy choices for every programme.
Within minutes of debut, well-known companies like Billboard, HBO, NPR, and Netflix had accounts set up, as well as stars like Shakira and former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.
A Reuters review revealed that the app didn't seem to display any advertisements.
According to Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer marketing firm Influential, Meta has been courting social media influencers to the new app and asking them to post at least twice each day in order to promote Threads.
In their initial posts, some users congratulated the firm for early access.
The app also gains from other would-be Twitter competitors' failure to capitalise on the service's missteps. While a number of emerging rivals, including Mastodon, Post, Truth Social, and T2, have made attempts to entice Twitter users away, all have so far remained relatively tiny.
In February, the invite-only beta for Bluesky, a new service supported by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, began. Initially, users were clamouring for access credentials. As of April, according to its website, it has 50,000 users. Dorsey also supported the Nostr platform.
But Meta is up against history. It has previously launched a number of unsuccessful standalone copycat applications, most notably its Lasso app designed to compete with TikTok's rival for short videos.
Later, the business added a quick video tool called Reels right to Instagram, and more recently, as part of a cost-cutting effort, it closed its division responsible for creating test apps.
According to Jasmine Enberg, chief analyst at Insider Intelligence, another possible argument against Threads is that the news-oriented culture on Twitter differs from that on Instagram, a more visual network.
That goes against Meta's recent effort to steer clear of news and political programming in favour of Reels films that include lighter entertainment. In legal conflicts over plans to compel payment to journalistic publishers, the firm has minimised the significance of news material on its platforms.
Yet, according to Enberg, Meta just needs to persuade 25% of Instagram users to sign up for Threads in order to match Twitter's user base.
"The reality is that Meta doesn't need to convert Twitter power users into Threads users" to succeed, she said.
A user who prophesied Twitter's doom an hour after the introduction of Threads received a response from Zuckerberg who advised patience. We're still in the early stages of this first round, he remarked.
(Source:www.tbsnews.net)
"Let's do this ". In his first message on the app, Zuckerberg included a fire emoji and said, "Welcome to Threads. He said that in its first four hours, the app had received 5 million sign-ups.
The software is similar to Twitter in that it allows users to like, re-post, and reply to short text posts, but it does not include direct messaging. According to a post on the Meta blog, posts may contain up to 500 characters as well as links, images, and videos that are up to five minutes long.
According to the blog post, it is accessible on Google Play and Apple's Play Store in more than 100 nations.
Analysts claimed that investors were drooling at the prospect of Threads' connections to Instagram providing it with a built-in user base and advertising infrastructure. At a time when the new CEO of the microblogging startup is attempting to restore its struggling business, that may syphon advertising dollars from Twitter.
Although Threads is a stand-alone app, users can log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same profiles, potentially making it simple for Instagram's more than 2 billion monthly active users to incorporate it into their routines.
"Investors can't help but be a little excited about the prospect that Meta really has a 'Twitter-Killer'," said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment firm AJ Bell.
Ahead of the launch, Meta stock ended the day up 3%, outperforming gains made by rival tech firms despite a slight decline in the overall market.
The launch of Threads comes after months of teasing from Musk and Zuckerberg, who even vowed to engage in a live mixed martial arts cage bout in Las Vegas.
The timing is right for Meta to strike because Musk's erratic decision-making has roiled Twitter for months.
Twitter was purchased by Musk for $44 billion in October of last year, but its valuation has subsequently plunged as a result of an advertiser exodus, significant personnel reductions, and content moderation concerns. Its most recent action was restricting how many tweets users may read per day.
Later Threads posts by Zuckerberg addressed such issues. "I believe that an app for public talks with more than 1 billion users should exist. Twitter has had the chance to do this, but hasn't quite succeeded. Hopefully, he wrote, "we will.
There were multiple references to privacy issues in the Instagram integration. Instagram users who sign up for Threads have a badge added to their profile automatically, though they can choose to hide it. Additionally, they have the opportunity to select various privacy choices for every programme.
Within minutes of debut, well-known companies like Billboard, HBO, NPR, and Netflix had accounts set up, as well as stars like Shakira and former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.
A Reuters review revealed that the app didn't seem to display any advertisements.
According to Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer marketing firm Influential, Meta has been courting social media influencers to the new app and asking them to post at least twice each day in order to promote Threads.
In their initial posts, some users congratulated the firm for early access.
The app also gains from other would-be Twitter competitors' failure to capitalise on the service's missteps. While a number of emerging rivals, including Mastodon, Post, Truth Social, and T2, have made attempts to entice Twitter users away, all have so far remained relatively tiny.
In February, the invite-only beta for Bluesky, a new service supported by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, began. Initially, users were clamouring for access credentials. As of April, according to its website, it has 50,000 users. Dorsey also supported the Nostr platform.
But Meta is up against history. It has previously launched a number of unsuccessful standalone copycat applications, most notably its Lasso app designed to compete with TikTok's rival for short videos.
Later, the business added a quick video tool called Reels right to Instagram, and more recently, as part of a cost-cutting effort, it closed its division responsible for creating test apps.
According to Jasmine Enberg, chief analyst at Insider Intelligence, another possible argument against Threads is that the news-oriented culture on Twitter differs from that on Instagram, a more visual network.
That goes against Meta's recent effort to steer clear of news and political programming in favour of Reels films that include lighter entertainment. In legal conflicts over plans to compel payment to journalistic publishers, the firm has minimised the significance of news material on its platforms.
Yet, according to Enberg, Meta just needs to persuade 25% of Instagram users to sign up for Threads in order to match Twitter's user base.
"The reality is that Meta doesn't need to convert Twitter power users into Threads users" to succeed, she said.
A user who prophesied Twitter's doom an hour after the introduction of Threads received a response from Zuckerberg who advised patience. We're still in the early stages of this first round, he remarked.
(Source:www.tbsnews.net)
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