Logll Tech News — In a phenomenal debut week, Meta’s Twitter rival, Threads, has achieved unprecedented success. Soaring to the top of the app store charts, Threads has become the fastest growing app of all time, surpassing the records set by chatGPT and TikTok.
Organic Growth and Impressive User Base
Remarkably, Threads accomplished this feat without being available in the European Union, one of Meta’s crucial markets. While Meta adopted some of its growth strategies from its own playbook, such as sending notifications to potential users on Instagram and pre-populating their feeds with engaging content and followers, Mark Zuckerberg attributed the app’s early success primarily to organic demand. He expressed his excitement in a celebratory post on Threads.
Twitter’s Struggle in the Face of Threads’ Dominance
Threads has made an immediate impact, overshadowing Twitter in its inaugural week. Various metrics indicate that Threads is not only a viral sensation in its own right but is also directly undermining Twitter’s user engagement.
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Shortly after Threads’ launch, Matthew Prince, the CEO of DNS service Cloudflare, observed a significant decline in Twitter’s traffic. His analysis, supported by a graph illustrating the sharp dip in visits to twitter.com since the end of June, coinciding with Elon Musk’s restrictions on tweet views and the subsequent launch of Threads. SimilarWeb, an analytics firm, corroborated this trend, reporting a 5 percent decrease in traffic to twitter.com during the two days following Threads’ release, compared to the same period the previous week. It is important to note that this decline in traffic is in addition to an overall downward trend that predates Threads.
Twitter traffic tanking. https://t.co/KSIXqNsu40 pic.twitter.com/mLlbuXVR6r
— Matthew Prince 🌥 (@eastdakota) July 9, 2023
Twitter’s Core Users and Musk’s Engagement Metric
Despite Threads’ initial triumph, Twitter retains a core group of dedicated users, as revealed by the Ipsos poll. More than half of American Twitter users expressed no interest in migrating to Threads, at least in the near future. Data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower further indicates that Twitter’s engagement remained steady following Threads’ launch, while average time spent on Threads actually decreased. Elon Musk and Twitter’s newly-appointed CEO, Linda Yaccarino, emphasized this narrative, highlighting a somewhat dubious metric they coined themselves. They claimed that Threads’ launch coincided with Twitter’s “largest usage day since February,” citing “cumulative user-seconds per day of phone screentime” as the most reliable measure. However, it remains unclear how Musk derived this metric as neither Apple nor Google provides screen time data to app developers.
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Threads: A Threat to Twitter’s Dominance
Threads’ overnight success has undoubtedly unsettled Twitter’s leadership. Despite numerous Twitter alternatives emerging in the aftermath of Musk’s turbulent takeover, none have come close to amassing 100 million users. Mastodon, Twitter’s most formidable rival, boasts only 2 million monthly users, while the invite-only service Bluesky has amassed approximately 300,000 sign-ups.
Furthermore, Threads has successfully attracted a critical demographic that eluded many of its predecessors: brands. The app has become a haven for brands, resulting in a surge of branded content. Although this content may sometimes come across as cliché and uninspiring, it greatly benefits Meta. Brands on Threads enjoy unprecedented organic engagement, exceeding that of Twitter. As noted in a report by Website Plant, 87% of brands received more likes on Threads posts compared to Twitter, even when the content remained the same across both platforms.
Despite Threads strong sign-ups/DAUs, ST data shows engagement remains low. Weekend time spent declined 60% from Jul 6 highs; this was 60% & 85% lower than avg time spent on Twitter & Insta, resp.#SensorTower, #Threadsapp, #mobileappdata, #Instagram #Twitter pic.twitter.com/tFHyuBG7UO
— Sensor Tower (@SensorTower) July 12, 2023
Advertising Prospects and Positive Outlook
Zuckerberg has stated that Threads will not introduce ads until the app reaches a user base of 1 billion. However, it is likely that advertising will eventually make its way to Threads. According to Axios, Meta is already developing branded content tools for the platform, with plans to make them available promptly. Consequently, Wall Street analysts are optimistic about Threads’ future. One analyst estimated that the week-old app could generate up to $8 billion in revenue for Meta by 2025, as reported by Bloomberg.
This turn of events is particularly challenging for Musk and Twitter, as the company faces a grim financial outlook, leading to the suspension of numerous bill payments. According to a recent report from The New York Times, Twitter’s ad sales—its primary revenue source—have plummeted by 59% compared to the previous year, with little expectation of improvement in the near future. Meta’s sudden entry into the scene with Threads positions the platform to capture Twitter’s lost advertising revenue and more.
While this development might please Musk and Twitter’s staunchest critics, it is crucial to acknowledge the significant implications of a digital landscape where yet another Meta-owned platform dominates its closest rivals. Meta, particularly Instagram, has different norms and standards regarding acceptable speech on its service. Furthermore, questions surrounding Meta’s integration of Threads into the broader Fediverse remain largely unanswered.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to ignore Threads’ impressive momentum during its inaugural week and the extent to which it has eroded Twitter’s influence.
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Sergio Richi
Editor, Logll Tech News