Meta has recently introduced a brand new social media platform – Threads, and in just a day, it immediately gained more than 100 million users. If you are a Twitter user, you will notice right away the uncanny similarity between the two. Even the name and the logo remind most people of Twitter, despite being a variation of “@.” And even though the platform is actually linked to Instagram, and the way it operates largely depends on your Instagram activity, Threads was, in fact, created to rival Twitter. Given how unsatisfied most users are with Twitter lately, Threads is predicted to gain even more popularity.
There has been a lot of criticism surrounding Threads. Most people who “refuse to ever touch that monstrosity”, talk about how it’s banned within the European Union. The EU famously has very strict laws concerning privacy, cybersecurity, and online data. Threads (being a newly launched app) has no way of protecting the data well enough to protect users’ private information from such breaches. What most digital media experts and Mark Zuckerberg have to say about the issue is that, as time passes, more features will be provided.
What’s the future of Threads?
In any case, Threads has emerged at the right time. One evening, Twitter went down for a couple hours. Then users found out that Elon Musk has introduced the new feature of limiting how many tweets an individual user can see in a day. Users with no subscriptions were outraged to see those numbers. It’s quite understandable when you remember how the new Twitter algorithm works. A scroll or two up and down your timeline, filled with tweets from non-followers at that, and your daily quota is pretty much complete. Most users started sharing alternative options to Twitter. That evening, Threads gained more than 100 million sign ups.
Mark had a lot to say about that. But the main point was to announce that as of now (until Threads gains more than a billion individual users), they have no plans on having any ads on the platform. A heaven for avid social media users. Be it Twitter or the other two Meta owned social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram), you can’t go past two or three posts without coming across an ad, a sponsored post, a suggested post that Meta thinks you would like, or a suggested follow. All of that, even if nobody is offering to sell something to you, is a form of advertising. Essentially, all big social media apps operate on ads, and they make a lot of money doing so.
Should you sign-up?
So then, Threads seems like a pretty good option, right? Well, yes, if you ignore the fact that the founder said himself that they are just waiting to gather more people to start introducing ads. Which, don’t get us wrong, is not a bad thing per se. We live in a digital era, and of course, most advertising, marketing, and business ventures are bound to happen online. It’s certainly a good thing for business owners. And we don’t mean big corporations here. They will be fine whenever, wherever, and whatever they do. It’s a good thing for local and small businesses. A brand new platform with brand new opportunities.
People criticizing how Threads mimics Twitter in many ways have to remember that this is not a new thing. TikTok literally stole the entire idea behind Vine. And now, nobody even remembers Vine anymore. To think a viral app would be forgotten in such a short amount of time. That’s what social media platforms do. Threads will develop its own unique features and introduce a lot of options as time passes. Social media is a responsive platform, and it’s mostly modified (through new updates) depending on how users respond to the existing features. We just have to give Threads some time.
Wrapping Up
And lastly, as expected, third party social media platforms have already introduced new features that allow users to buy Threads followers, likes, or reshares. The prices are extremely cheap, it being a new app and all. It seems like everybody is excited to at least try out the platform to see if they can become regular users. Maybe Threads can really become an alternative, then completely replace Twitter.
