The short message service Twitter, which was in crisis under Elon Musk, has a powerful new competitor. The Facebook group Meta launched its Threads app with similar functionality in more than 100 countries on Thursday evening. However, EU countries are not included. It’s unclear how quickly that could change. The group refers to outstanding regulatory issues. They want to constantly check whether the app can also be launched in Europe.
Threads is tied to Meta’s popular photo and video app, Instagram, and is considered Twitter’s most promising competitor. The reason for this is an edge: Meta can leverage existing connections between more than a billion users for its Twitter copy from the start. Other Twitter competitors such as Bluesky and T2 require such links to be created from scratch. According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, two million users logged into the platform in the first two hours after the app’s release.
Instagram users can easily apply their profile to threads photo app. Threaded text messages can be up to 500 characters long and can contain links, photos, and videos up to five minutes long. When Twitter launched in 2006, the text limit was originally 140 characters and was later doubled to 280 characters.
Waiting for new rules in the EU
Regarding the EU, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri pointed out that it was complicated “to comply with some laws coming into force in the coming year”. They didn’t want to launch any app in Europe that wasn’t future-proof, he told technology blog “The Verge.” Mosseri is probably referring to the Digital Markets Act, which sets stricter rules for online platforms. Among other things, merging data from different services is becoming increasingly difficult.
Until Threads launches in the EU, users from the region will be able to view posts in a web view, but will not be able to share or like them.
Software shows “recommended content”
In addition to the accounts they follow, Thread users should also get “recommended content” in their feeds from other profiles, according to a Meta blog post. The messages are not displayed in chronological order, but sorted by the software. First of all, there is no option to show content only from the profiles you follow. The service reserves the right to collect a wide range of personal data.
Twitter has been struggling since it was acquired by tech billionaire Musk in October 2022. Among other things, the advertising revenues used to finance the short message service collapsed. Recently, Musk introduced limits on the number of tweets users can see per day. According to him, this is intended to prevent Twitter data from being extracted, including for training software with artificial intelligence. Twitter subscribers can see a maximum of 10,000 tweets per day and non-subscribers can see a maximum of 1,000.
Zuckerberg hopes for a billion users
Musk bought Twitter for about $44 billion (about €40 billion) – later admitting that the valuation in talks with investors is now significantly lower. Zuckerberg expressed hope on Thursday that Threads could surpass one billion users over time. Twitter has had no user numbers since Musk took over, the short message service used to have more than 300 million users. Unlike Twitter in the Musk era, Meta has no money worries and can afford to stay in power with threads.
The rivalry between Twitter and Threads sets the course for a business duel between Musk and Zuckerberg, who increasingly emerge as rivals. In June, the two tech billionaires even agreed to an exhibition match. After initial doubts, the “New York Times” reported over the weekend that such a fight was actually in preparation – but it was still unclear whether it would actually take place. Zuckerberg, 39, works out with martial arts trainers and is visibly fitter than Musk, 52.
Meta draws inspiration from rivals
The Facebook group has repeatedly copied services and features from rivals, but has a mixed record. This worked extremely well with the Stories format, invented by the Snap photo app, where users can show their friends photos and videos for a day. The short films called “Reels”, with which Instagram and Facebook copy the popular Tiktok app, are also growing. On the other hand, despite several attempts, the group never managed to become a competitor to Snapchat’s self-deleting videos.
According to media reports, Zuckerberg also tried to buy Twitter more than a decade ago. But he was rejected by the founders.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
