For social media startups, attracting an audience is essential for scaling a new product, but it can be nearly impossible to entice loyal users away from competing platforms. Meta's Threads is not affected by this issue.
Launched on 5 July as a brand-friendly alternative to Twitter, the new microblogging site leverages Meta's existing reach to attract users from other platforms it controls.
Accounts on New Threads can simply migrate their data from Instagram, sharing their account information and username between platforms. CBS News reported that more than 10 million individuals registered for the new website within the first few hours of its launch due to its ease of use. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
Insider's request for comment was not promptly met by representatives of Meta.
Threads addresses the fundamental question that social start-ups such as BlueSky and Mastodon must address. Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit, stated in a video posted to Threads on Friday, "Why should a creator who has already spent so much time creating and following content on one platform switch to another?" These new ones have a significant problem with cold starts."
Ohanian's representatives did not respond promptly to Insider's request for comment.
Reaching a "critical mass" of new users can be difficult for new social media companies, according to Ohanian, because without a large enough audience, creators — who themselves attract new eyes — are unlikely to join up in the first place.
"If there is no audience, it is difficult to attract creators," Ohanian explained. "Currently, Instagram has both an audience and creators. Overnight, it was able to onboard a large number of people who have an incentive to now create content on Threads because they have a following on Instagram, and a portion of those followers will migrate to this other platform; they'll see the notifications, and they'll want to try it.
The Boston Herald reported that within two days of its debut, Threads amassed over 70 million users.
Sarah Oh, a former human rights advisor at Twitter and co-founder of the nascent Twitter alternative T2, said in an email to Insider, "The reasons for its rapid adoption are obvious." "Meta has taken advantage of Instagram's massive user base and made it simple for users to connect the accounts they already follow. Obviously, they are capitalizing on the pervasive disillusionment with Twitter."
She added, "However, it remains to be seen if it will take hold. Will it serve any new purposes for Instagram users, or is it simply a new location for them to receive updates from accounts they already follow? Threads has been referred to as "the echo chamber for the ultra-followed" due to the algorithm that favors posts from larger accounts over those from peers.
T2, which now has more than 10,000 regular users, began accepting users from its waitlist in December and continues to stagger their entrance to prevent new users from overwhelming the community. Oh stated that T2 "does not believe that a 'big bang' launch is an effective method for launching healthy online communities."
In a Threads conversation with The Verge's Alex Heath, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated that the Threads platform is "not going to do anything to encourage" politics and "hard news" — the bread and butter of Twitter conversation. Instead of focusing on replacing Twitter, he stated that it will be a brand-safe space for users "interested in a less hostile place for conversations."
Ohanian said in his video, "It's a bold move by Zuck to exploit Elon's weakness at this time," adding that he believes "it can work" to put the bird app to the side.
Critics have cited the massive amounts of data that Threads collects and a current bug that prevents users from deleting their Threads accounts without deleting their entire Instagram account as reasons to avoid creating an account; however, the criticism has not slowed its widespread adoption.
According to Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic, the meteoric rise of Threads can be partially attributed to Mark Zuckerberg's habit of creating Meta-branded versions of prominent social media sites.
"When Facebook acquired Instagram, it rebranded it as 'Instagram by Facebook.'" They now have a pattern of launching or creating spin-off social media networks based on what is most popular at the time, and then doing so under their own brand, Caraballo said. "They have Facebook, Instagram, TikTok's competitor Reels, Threads, and WhatsApp — it's kind of a nightmare scenario where you end up with a monopoly under one company."
Elon Musk is threatening legal action against Threads, as previously reported by Insider, claiming in a cease-and-desist letter that Meta recruited ex-Twitter employees to help create the "copycat" app, which Meta denies.
Caraballo believes that the Federal Trade Commission may need to intervene at some point to force Meta to divest or to sell WhatsApp or Threads due to the social media giant's stranglehold on American social networks. She cites the demise of alternative social media sites and the difficulty of new sites to gain widespread popularity as evidence.
Insider quoted Caraballo as saying, "It is so dystopian to have a single individual oversee the entirety of social media, at least in the West." "It is extremely disturbing, and I do not believe it is healthy for any society."
