2023-07-08 13:30:00
For my first article (well, almost) here on MacMagazine, I planned to talk regarding Apple, of course. The intention would be to reflect on how Vision Pro technologies can accelerate the evolution of the company’s other products, or perhaps discuss Apple’s curious (and mistaken) decision not to include GPUsGraphics processing unitsor graphics processing units.”>1 dedicated on Mac Pro in times of training artificial intelligence models. Or, explore how long Apple takes to bring Pro specs to non-Pro models of its products, inspired by a chat between Rafa and Edu in a MacMagazine No Ar recent.
However, no other tech story from the last week (or perhaps since WWDC) is as relevant right now as the launch of the Threads.
After months of speculation and leaks, the world has yet another alternative to Twitter. I, who have been using the Mastodon over the last few months and following Bluesky’s activities, I dare say that it is not even productive to discuss whether Threads will work. He already did — despite the protests of a portion of Fediverso. With more than 70 million users registered in 48 hours (10 million in just 7 hours), Threads is on track to handily beat ChatGPT’s record, which reached 100 million users in heritage 2 months.
Of course, as many have already pointed out, this is an unfair comparison. Threads has Meta’s infinite budget at its disposal, plus the entire social network foundation of Instagram. No competitor had (or will ever have) that possibility. Even so, last Wednesday, those who accessed Threads were able to follow, in real time, the unfolding of a new chapter in the history of social networks, 500 characters at a time.
Who listen to my podcasts he has known for the longest time of my contempt for Meta. Especially in the months (maybe years?) post-Cambridge Analytica, there has been no shortage of examples of how the company is a reflection of Mark Zuckerberg’s lack of character and lack of any sense of responsibility.
A constant criticism of Meta, and not just mine, is the company’s lack of creativity. The last and perhaps only original idea they had was the creation of the News Feed, in 2006. This novelty was so hated at the time that it generated death threats to the Indian engineer Ruchi Sanghvi, responsible for its implementation. After that, Facebook just copied or acquired the competition. Copied Reddit with Groups in 2010, bought WhatsApp in 2012, bought Instagram in 2014, copied Periscope with Facebook Live in 2015, copied Snapchat with Stories in 2017, copied TikTok with Reels in 2021, and copied even Clubhouse and BeReal recently when they had their 15 minutes of fame.
But if there’s one product that Facebook has never been able to clone, it’s Twitter. And that always bothered Zuckerberg who, once, referred to the company as follows: “A mess. A clown car that accidentally crashed into a gold mine.”
From the plane on the Hudson River to videos shared in real time at Taylor Swift’s crowded concerts, the power of Twitter has always been to provide instant access to any event or information around the world. The problem is that this market has always been relatively limited. And its profitability, even more so.
Shortly before Twitter’s leadership change, the platform reached a record 450 million active users following almost 20 years of its launch. And analyzing Twitter’s direct competitors, specifically Mastodon with its 13 million registered users in 6 years, and Bluesky still in beta with around 1 million users, the conclusion is that all the potential public interested in something like Twitter, it was already… well… on Twitter. It never made sense for Facebook to launch a product in this scenario.
Then came 2023. Or rather October 2022. From that point on, the turmoil of Twitter’s leadership transition and user exodus created an unprecedented opportunity. In December 2022, Adam Mosseri, CEOChief executive officeror executive director.”>2 of Instagram, confided to journalist Casey Newton that he was tempted to develop a replacement for Twitter. Since then, the idea has turned into a project (with codenames Barcelona e Project 92) and, this week, a product.
From a communication point of view, the launch of Threads was perfect. TV celebrities and content creators with millions of followers on Instagram were given early access to create buzz. They also received very obvious instructions to post upbeat and unifying welcome messages, setting the tone for the platform.
O timing It mightn’t have been better either. Days earlier, Twitter gave Threads a gift, limiting the viewing of tweets even for paid users of the platform. This, incidentally, was what motivated Instagram to schedule the launch of Threads for Thursday and, later, bring it forward to Wednesday night, with many features missing such as support for hashtagsdirect messages, all text of images for accessibility, etc.
An important caveat here is the following: Threads does not seem to have been made to become the absolute replacement for the entire universe of people who use or who used Twitter. The initial focus on celebrities, with their 10, 20, 30 million followers, already gives a good hint of the ideal audience that Instagram wants on the platform. We, who are a little more focused on technology and news consumption, can even establish a community there. But the initial focus is unequivocal: attracting cheap engagement profiles, such as memes, gossip and selfies of people who haven’t finished getting dressed yet, which generate billions of likes, reposts, comments and, in the not too distant future, ad views — Meta’s and all its platforms’ sole reason for existence.
Still, Threads’ record adoption proves an argument that, ironically, was made in discussions once morest Facebook: no matter how big a social network is, it is always a few consecutive wrong decisions away from losing its dominance.
Frankly, I don’t know if I will use Threads to the same extent that I use Mastodon. As with Instagram for years, I feel kind of dirty opening up the platform, knowing the lack of respect for our privacy. Still, it is inevitable to say that there are something ali.
If Twitter has taught us anything over the past year, it’s that it’s impossible to predict the future of the social networking market. But at this point, I think it’s safe to say that Threads’ success will be more enduring than, say, Linda Yaccarino’s stint in her newly filled role as CEO of Twitter.
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