The IT Nerd

Elon Musk’s many, many, MANY, self inflicted gunshot wounds to the foot have tested the patience of Twitter users. A lot of them have bolted to Mastodon who crossed 13 million users over the weekend. Some have gone to Bluesky who had to stop sign ups temporarily over the weekend because of the influx of new users. But the biggest threat to Elon Musk may come from Meta. According to this report, Meta will launch Threads in two days:

We’ve known for quite a while that Meta has been building a Twitter competitor, but now we have a more solid idea of when it will become available. A listing for the app called Threads has popped up in the iOS App Store with an estimated release date of July 6th. In May, a report came out saying that the microblogging service was nearing completion and could be out as soon as the end of June. While an end-of-June launch didn’t quite happen, the app could be arriving at a time when Twitter users are more willing (and maybe even eager) to try an alternative.

And:

Meta describes Threads as “Instagram’s text-based conversation app.” Based on the screenshots posted in the listing, users can keep their Instagram handle and follow the same accounts they follow on the photo-sharing platform. That means users will have a pre-existing following and circles on the new app, giving it an edge over other Twitter rivals. Users will also be able to choose the privacy of their posts and make them visible to anyone, to the profiles they follow or only to the accounts they mention. They will be able to heart, send and share other people’s posts, as well.

This is really bad news for Elon Musk. Meta is the one company who has the resources, the name brand recognition, and the ability to as the kids say to “end” Twitter. If you combine that with the numerous other alternatives to Twitter which include the following:

• Mastodon
• Bluesky
• WT.Social
• Cohost

Then you have to believe that Twitter days are numbered. To be frank, Twitter’s days have been numbered for some time. But Meta’s entry into this space may be the final nail in the coffin for Twitter. And what could make it very interesting is that rumours suggest that Threads will federate with Mastodon. Which could give it a lot more exposure and make it a viable alternative for users and advertisers.

If you’re Elon Musk, you have to be freaking over this development.

This entry was posted on July 4, 2023 at 10:58 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Facebook, Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.