In a bid to rival Twitter, Meta has launched Threads, their own text based conversation app. Zuckerberg has described Threads as “an open and friendly public space for conversation” providing “the best parts of Instagram and creating a new experience for text, ideas, and discussing what’s on your mind”. Threads is undeniably similar to Twitter; users can write posts up to 500 characters long (versus 280 on Twitter) and include photos and videos, repost, quote and like posts.

However, Threads currently lacks Twitter’s discoverability, which allows users to find communities and trending topics through hashtags. Meta is not shying away from this similarity though, acknowledging they are capitalising on Twitter’s “volatility” since Elon Musk’s takeover which has introduced many unpopular changes, most recently limiting how many tweets per day a user can see to prevent companies scraping Twitter’s data. Notably, though, Threads have already been forced to introduce a rate limit in order to block crypto and spam bots.

Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are now not only gearing up for a battle in the cage but have businesses going head-to-head. 

This isn’t Meta’s first venture into copying competitors. In 2012, they launched Poke to compete with Snapchat, but it struggled to captivate users and eventually shut its doors in 2014. Since then, Meta has adopted a more nuanced approach, selectively incorporating trending features from competitor platforms into their existing platforms, such as Instagram Stories to counter Snapchat and Instagram Reels to respond to the popularity of TikTok. In contrast to their ill-fated attempt to take on Snapchat at its peak, it appears that Meta has learnt valuable lessons from that experience and is strategically seizing the opportunity to take on Twitter when it is at its most vulnerable. 

Since its launch, Threads has achieved undeniable success. The app is the most rapidly downloaded app in history, receiving 150m downloads in 10 days, and remarkably this achievement has occurred without launching in the EU. Much of Threads’ success can be attributed to its clever and seamless sign-up journey; users can sign-up using their Instagram credentials, allowing them to effortlessly transfer the accounts they follow over to Threads. This streamlined process has allowed Meta to almost instantly engage a pool of their 2 billion global active Instagram users.

Can Threads Carve Its Own Path to Success?

Meta has high hopes for Threads, with an expectation that it will reach 1bn users, at which point the platform will be monetised. If this milestone is reached, this would be damning for Twitter which has already lost 50% of its advertising revenue. But with Twitter only having 450M active monthly users and being around for 17 years, how will Threads succeed where Twitter hasn’t and reach this ambitious target? This may be partly achieved by attracting the curious in the short term with an easy sign-up journey, but to engage users in the long term, Threads will need to go beyond relying on Twitter’s demise and copying features.

This is especially true given a recent study that revealed Twitter’s customers prior to Musk’s arrival already felt Twitter’s features were not addressing their needs, with 60% of users taking a break from the platform last year. Consequently, for Threads to succeed in the long term, they must listen to customer needs and find its unique identity and differentiating offer within the online social and cultural landscape.

So what does Threads’ launch mean for brands?

For brands, Twitter’s main value versus other social platforms lies in its use as an instant customer care channel. In essence, Threads should also be able to serve this purpose with its functionality but monitoring both platforms would be resource intensive for brands, and transferring customer care to Threads when its future is still so uncertain is a risk little would take. Only time will tell whether Threads can serve the needs of companies better in this regard.  

In the short term, Threads’ main purpose for brands will be to strengthen and deepen relationships with customers. However, as ads will not be present on the platform in the foreseeable future and without a current discoverability feature, brands for the time being will be limited to only communicating with their existing customers and audiences. But despite this limitation, it will be important for brands to have a presence on the platform from its infancy to shape Threads as it evolves and be seen to be by their customers’ side as they adventure into a new social world, whether or not the platform succeeds in engaging users in the long term. 

How can Manifesto help?

Manifesto are experts in identifying and implementing new business models that will drive consumer lifetime value through proposition design, experience optimisation and driving value from data. We have worked with a number of leading businesses across sectors and have a proven track record of accelerating ongoing enterprise-wide change. Contact us to find out more.