First-hand experience | Zuckerberg's Twitter competitor Threads is launched, is it really better?

Author: Jaleel, Jack, BlockBeats

Editor: Jack, BlockBeats

Zuckerberg, a well-known name in the global social media industry, once overturned people's traditional social methods, moving people's social occasions from real-life parties to the internet. He has always been committed to breaking Twitter's dominance and shaping a new center for public online conversations. Although Twitter's influence has stubbornly maintained its irreplaceable position, this has not caused Zuckerberg to give up his ambitions.

On July 6th, Threads was officially launched by Meta, making it the company's latest app release after Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This new app directly competes with Twitter, not only by naming one of its functions after a Twitter feature, but also by emphasizing public conversations, which some tech professionals have even dubbed as the "Twitter killer".

Threads is developed on top of Instagram's user base, combining elements of both Instagram and Twitter. Users can follow the people they already follow on Instagram. In a company-wide meeting last month, Meta executives shared that Instagram Threads will integrate with the decentralized social media protocol ActivityPub, based on Mastodon.

Threads' official and brief description on the App Store is: Threads is the place where communities gather to discuss all content from topics that matter to you today to trends of tomorrow. No matter what you're interested in, you can follow and directly connect with your favorite creators and other people who share the same interests, or build your own loyal followers and share your ideas, perspectives, and creativity with the world.

Threads was quickly released on Apple's App Store for global users to register and download. BlockBeats conducted a review and experience test on Threads as soon as it was launched.

Threads Performance Review: How Does It Perform?

Before its official launch, the application preview photos displayed in the Apple App Store led many users to speculate that they could log in to Threads using their Instagram accounts. Meanwhile, Threads uses ActivityPub, a decentralized social media protocol also used by Mastodon. This means that Threads' content may be available on multiple servers, and Instagram usernames, followers, and other account information can be automatically transferred to the new Threads app according to user needs.

1. Download the application

Users who pre-ordered and downloaded the Threads app on July 4th can directly open Threads from the Apple App Store. Upon entering the page, if the user has installed Instagram, Threads will automatically recognize the user's Instagram account and provide a one-click login option for the account.

2. Account Settings

After selecting the Ins account login, you will enter the user homepage editing page. Here, users cannot modify their usernames, and Threads are directly synchronized through the Ins account. Then, you can set your personalized signature and personal link. Of course, you can also choose to import directly from Instagram.

Click to continue to the privacy settings page. Like Instagram, users can choose to make their profile public or private.

Next is the Ins account follow-up. Threads will synchronize the Ins accounts that users follow, allowing users to choose whether to follow them again on the Threads platform. After completion, you will be redirected to the Threads operating mode page, where you can read it and enter the application homepage.

3. Homepage browsing and interactive replies

Threads homepage browsing interface is not much different from Twitter. Each Thread only displays the first content, and under the Thread with multiple replies, three overlapping avatars will be displayed. After clicking on a Thread, you can view comments from other users.

The interactive method is similar to Twitter, but with added interaction features similar to Instagram. Clicking on the share button, which looks similar to "Telegram Feixin", allows you to choose to share the Thread as a redirect to your own Instagram feed, or to publish it in the form of a Story on your own Instagram. On the "Feed" page, you can view other users' interaction messages with yourself.

4. Privacy Settings

Some privacy settings on Instagram can be copied to Threads, and custom restriction words have also been added. Users can choose specific content they do not want to see on Threads and it will not be displayed.

"Twitter Killer" Goes Online at the Right Time

As an old hand who has been in the business world for 20 years, Zuckerberg's timing for this move is very clever and precise, as Twitter is experiencing a new round of turmoil.

We all know that since Musk acquired Twitter last year, in order to help Twitter turn losses into profits, a series of policy changes have had to be made, such as modifying the algorithm that determines which posts are most prominent on Twitter, abolishing content review rules that prohibit certain types of tweets, and completely overhauling the verification process for confirming user identities.

Over the past weekend, Musk imposed reading restrictions on Twitter users: verified accounts can read up to 10,000 tweets per day, unverified accounts can read up to 1,000 tweets, and new unverified accounts can read up to 500 tweets (this number has been slightly increased through frequency limit increases). Musk explained that this restriction is to resist other companies' "scraping" process of obtaining Twitter data. However, faced with such restrictions, many Twitter users are not buying his explanation and feel frustrated and dissatisfied. Tags and search terms such as "GoodBye Twitter" and "RIP Twitter" have frequently appeared, and some have even made the choice to find alternatives to Twitter.

Due to the limited data policy launched by Elon Musk on July 2nd, Bluesky, the social protocol sponsored by Jack Dorsey, has experienced "record-breaking traffic" in history. Eugen Rochko, the founder and CEO of the urban-style social network Mastodon, also shared data from last weekend, showing that the number of active users on Mastodon increased by 294,000 and the amount of activity posted approximately doubled.

Obviously, Bluesky and Mastodon are unable to fully accommodate the "refugees" who fled from Twitter, and the social track occupied by Twitter has been torn apart by a large gap. Therefore, at this time, Zuckerberg decisively launched Threads, attempting to invade and fill this gap.

Threads, which was launched at this opportune time, was actually planned by Meta last year.

According to some previous reports, Meta's executives began discussing how to use the chaos to gain a larger market share for Meta, such as creating a competitor service, which gave birth to Threads, when the chaotic situation first emerged on Twitter.

From a preliminary perspective, Threads is indeed positioned as such. At least for now, it does not limit the amount of content users can read like Twitter does.

This is a project derived from Instagram, with an internal code name of Project 92. Although it has not been officially launched, based on the application photo preview displayed in the Apple App Store, many users speculate that they can use their Instagram account to log in to Threads. Therefore, Threads will probably attract existing Instagram users, new users seeking different social media experiences, and "refugees" fleeing from Twitter.

Interestingly, Meta's Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, said that Threads was inspired by users who wanted a "sanely run" social media platform, which seems to be a satire of Musk.

Apparently, Musk also noticed this ridicule and made a sarcastic retort of "Thank God, they run so rationally."

However, many users and community members seem to be skeptical of Threads' professional "sanely run" approach. They question whether "sanely run" implies that the application will collect all user data. In the iOS version, Twitter collects 7 data points, while Threads collects 14 data points.

Facebook experienced a high-profile user data leak in 2018, when a former employee of Cambridge Analytica exposed insider information about the misuse of Facebook data to the media. Facebook had to apologize for the illegal collection of data, and Mark Zuckerberg even attended a 2-day, 10-hour hearing in the United States. Finally, in July 2019, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Facebook must pay a fine of $5 billion for violating privacy regulations.

This scandal has raised public concerns about the leakage of personal privacy on social media, to the extent that some people have launched the "#DeleteFacebook" movement on Twitter. Companies led by Musk, such as Tesla and SpaceX, have also participated in this "uninstall Facebook" movement by deleting and deactivating their own Facebook accounts. "Facebook makes me feel sick," Musk publicly expressed this opinion on Twitter.

And moving on to the most recent event, on May 22nd, Meta was fined $1.3 billion by the European Union for its 10-year involvement in large-scale surveillance and ordered to stop transferring its data to servers in the United States. This is the largest fine in the history of the European Union.

Regarding the collection of so much user data by Threads, it has caused dissatisfaction among many users and community members. This has also caught the attention of Jack Dorsey, who posted a screenshot of Threads' data policy on Twitter. Musk seemed to respond with a "Yea" in a somewhat gloating manner.

Zama "Cage Fighting History"

The name of Threads is named after a competitor of Twitter, and its functionality seems very similar to Twitter. Some technicians even call it the "Twitter killer". Zuckerberg's obsession with Twitter can be traced back to the early days of Twitter's establishment, when Zuckerberg proposed to acquire the company, but was rejected.

As for the news reports about Zuckerberg's plan to compete with Twitter, Musk has been mocking and provoking him online. A Twitter user warned Musk, reminding him of Zuckerberg's recent promotion of martial arts. "If he wants, I can have a cage fight with him, haha," Musk tweeted on Tuesday night.

Zuckerberg, who has been training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, responded on Instagram the next day: "Tell me the location." Musk then tweeted, "If this is true, I'm game," and suggested holding the match in Las Vegas. Throughout the night, Musk discussed the possibility of their duel on Twitter, including mentioning Zuckerberg's peak physical condition.

Not only that, according to behind-the-scenes accounts from those who have heard them privately complain, the two have long harbored deep-seated animosity towards each other and occasionally take public shots at each other over topics such as AI and others. Musk has been cash-strapped for years, watching Zuckerberg easily make money with software while he toils away on electric cars and space rockets, which has left him feeling frustrated. On the other hand, Zuckerberg yearns for the respect that innovators like Musk receive from people.

Related reading: "Meta launches Twitter competitor Threads, behind which lies years of private enmity between Musk and Zuckerberg."

The escalating hype around the duel between the two has indirectly reinforced their growing commercial competition, injecting new vitality into the battle for social media advertising revenue.

Since taking over Twitter at the end of October last year, Musk has faced many challenges in reshaping the company according to his own wishes, including a decrease in advertising spending by some brands, partly due to their concerns about the company's future. In response, Musk said he needed to make large-scale cost cuts, including layoffs, to avoid bankruptcy. Now, he says the company is expected to achieve positive cash flow and has hired a well-known television advertising executive as CEO to improve relations with advertisers.

Despite Meta's ambitious launch of Threads, it also faces its own challenges. The Silicon Valley tech giant is making a strong push towards the so-called virtual world or immersive digital world transformation. However, given that the concept of this virtual universe has not yet reached mainstream acceptance, its bold investment decisions have inevitably raised many questions.

In recent months, Zuckerberg has also been dealing with a series of issues for Meta, such as reducing company costs and addressing the question of whether the company has fallen behind in the artificial intelligence competition. In a staff meeting last month, he attempted to unite employees by explaining the company's layoff decisions and Meta's vision in the field of artificial intelligence, in order to integrate these elements into his grand plan for the metaverse.

Despite facing various challenges, Meta remains Twitter's strongest competitor, with its strong financial resources and user base of over 3 billion on Facebook, Instagram, and other applications, making its strength in the social media battlefield undeniable. However, platforms that try to exploit Twitter's weaknesses, such as Tumblr, Nostr, Spill, Mastodon, and Bluesky, clearly have much less influence compared to Meta.

However, whether Threads, as a new "killer", can truly shake Twitter's position or at least win a place on the battlefield of social media, remains to be verified by time and the market. Despite Zuckerberg's attempts and determination being evident, only the strongest can have the last laugh in this battlefield.

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