Chris Cox, one of Mark Zuckerberg’s most trusted lieutenants, unveiled “our response to Twitter” at a Meta staff meeting last week.
The product chief demonstrated what has been internally codenamed “Project 92” or, in some iterations, “Barcelona”: a prototype app that Facebook-developers hope will ultimately eliminate their competitor.
The app is expected to be called Threads, and screenshots imply it will feature a Twitter-like continuous scroll of text with Like and Retweet buttons, according to The Verge, a technology news website.
Already, Zuckerberg’s company is recruiting celebrities and influentials to test the application. Meta has been negotiating with Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama to create accounts, with the hope that these high-profile early users will entice the masses to join.
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, affirms, “I know for a fact that they’ve been in contact with a British celebrity and a few American A-listers.”
The release of the new app could occur as soon as “the end of the month or the beginning of the following month, as they have been recruiting for a while,” he claims.
Threads, which will be distinct from Meta’s popular Instagram, is anticipated to have a 500-character limit on its posts, remaining true to Twitter’s original ethos even as the competitor platform abandons shorter tweets in favor of longer essays.
The entire design, according to Navarra, “looks remarkably similar to Twitter.”
Users will likely be able to migrate their Instagram account information, including the ability to retain their handle and invite their followers to join them.
It should make it simpler to sell to individuals who have amassed large followings on other platforms.
Zuckerberg is preparing to attack as Twitter reels from Elon Musk’s takeover a year ago.
Since being acquired by Musk for $44 billion in October of last year, Twitter has been haemorrhaging advertising revenue and has lost some users.
Advertisers and users are both alarmed by Musk’s decision to reverse some restrictions on hate speech-related accounts. Some have found it offensive that he deprived accounts of their “blue check marks” and made them pay for the status symbol.
Companies are now concerned that their advertisements may be displayed alongside disinformation or hate speech. The New York Times reported that Twitter advertising expenditures fell 59 percent year-over-year, according to internal estimates.
Musk has struggled to convert Twitter users into paying subscribers for his £8 per month ‘Twitter Blue’ service.
It leaves Twitter vulnerable to attack and bleeding currency.
Zuckerberg, ever the opportunist, has spotted a window of opportunity to undermine Facebook’s long-standing rival. In January, mere weeks after Musk’s successful takeover of Twitter, work began on Meta’s new app.
Dan Ives, a technology analyst at Wedbush Securities, remarked, “Zuck’s decision to capitalize on Twitter’s unrest is a shrewd one.”
In 2008, when Twitter was just two years old and still in its infancy, Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg attempted to acquire the app for $500 million.
Could Threads truly dethrone Twitter as the global town square?
To date, lesser competitors have not caused significant harm. Apps backed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, such as Bluesky and Mastodon, have seen an increase in users since Musk’s takeover, but have been unable to convert these bumps into genuine momentum.
Meta, however, poses a significantly more credible threat. Advertisers are more likely to invest their advertising dollars with Zuckerberg than with lesser competitors.
Advertisers will be very receptive to a new offering from Meta, according to Brian Wieser, an independent advertising analyst who publishes the Madison and Wall newsletter.
While brand safety and suitability concerns are generally a concern with all social media, there is nothing keeping most advertisers away from Meta in the same way that Elon Musk’s presence on Twitter is there.
Twitter’s popularity among politicians, journalists, personalities, and pundits has remained consistent. However, Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Instagram programs have always had a significantly larger user base.
Musk stated in November that Twitter usage has reached “an all-time high” since his acquisition, with approximately 250 million users. However, this number pales in comparison to the more than two billion Instagram users. To pose a threat to Twitter, Zuckerberg would only need to persuade a portion of his user base to create an account.
According to Navarra, despite the negative sentiment surrounding its Facebook app, Instagram has maintained a “positive halo effect” around Meta. Despite a series of negative headlines about its elder sibling, its brand has helped persuade advertisers to say.
Meta’s rival app could help win over celebrities and brands that have grown weary of Elon Musk’s antics.
According to The Verge, Meta’s chief product officer, Mr. Cox, told staff, “We have heard from creators and public figures who are interested in a sanely managed platform.”
Zuckerberg could use a victory: Meta’s expensive drive into the “metaverse” is causing investors to grow increasingly uneasy. The company spends more than $1 billion per month attempting to sell consumers on Zuckerberg’s vision of a futuristic, immersive internet supported by virtual reality.
The track record of Meta in launching its own applications, however, should give pause for thought. Aside from Facebook, Zuckerberg’s crowning achievement, the company has struggled to launch original concepts and has instead expanded through savvy acquisitions, primarily Instagram and WhatsApp.
In recent years, Meta has discontinued the following apps: Direct, an Instagram-based messaging app; Groups, which was spun off from Facebook but garnered only 15 million downloads; and Neighbourhoods, an app for local communities.
“Meta has a poor track record of releasing new apps for younger audiences,” says Navarra. “Most of them failed very quickly and never went anywhere.”
It is “more adept at copying and pasting successful features than introducing new ones,” he adds. Zuckerberg notably adopted Snapchat’s popular “Stories” format – brief videos that are pinned to a user’s profile – for Instagram in 2016, thereby diminishing the popularity of Snapchat.
The company also redesigned Instagram to resemble its fast-growing competitor TikTok, but reversed some of the changes after user backlash.
Perhaps as a hedge against the possibility that Threads will fail, Zuckerberg has been examining ways to attract Twitter users to WhatsApp.
The company introduced Channels, a method for brands and organizations to communicate with large groups of followers. They can transmit text, images, audio, and video.
Government organizations and sports teams such as Manchester City and Barcelona have joined up. With 2 billion users, it could be a more effective method to reach people directly than tweeting and hoping they see it.
Whether it involves WhatsApp or Threads, the battle between Zuckerberg and Musk is unlikely to be straightforward. According to Ives, competitors will engage in a “costly battle for market share as advertising growth remains constrained.”
Musk is indifferent. He retweeted “zuck my tongue” in response to reports of Meta’s intentions, an apparent reference to a controversial incident in which the Dalai Lama instructed a child to “suck my tongue.”
Twitter’s recently appointed chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, who was hired to allay advertiser concerns, responded defiantly: “Game on!”
A Meta representative declined to comment.
