Meta New Pushes Threads Trial Experience: Still a long way to go before becoming a "Twitter killer".
Recently, whether it's Reddit announcing the closure of the free API or Twitter enabling a paid crawling mode and limiting visibility, it has caused a lot of user dissatisfaction. Users who originally had inertia in migrating to other platforms have also started to search for the next social media platform. Today, Meta, the reigning giant in the social media field, has launched an app called Threads to directly compete with Twitter, seizing the opportunity.
So what are the unique features of this new product, what are the differentiating points from Twitter, and can it maintain user retention after the "honeymoon" period? Odaily has firsthand experience with Threads and will share the evaluation and experience as follows:
Threads' Basic Features and Workflow
Threads has been officially launched and the app can be downloaded from the Apple Store and Google Store. Since Threads has integrated accounts with Instagram in the background, if you have an Instagram account, there is no need to register, you can directly authorize login.
Overall, the UI is relatively simple, and the relevant features are basically the same as Twitter.
However, there are some features in Twitter that Threads does not currently have, such as list categorization. But considering that the product has just been launched, its initial version is enough as a replacement for Twitter.
When we first tried this product, our initial impression was "a text version of Instagram". In addition to adding Twitter's threading functionality, it's simply placing the text section on top of the image section, making it more like an extension of Instagram and a complement to its text presentation. (On this point, Xiaohongshu has already done quite well at the product level.)
Internet Social Crown, Change of Ownership?
According to Techcrunch, Threads had over 2 million user registrations in its first two hours online. In addition, the data shows that Threads has risen to 27th place in the App Store's social (free) rankings.
The ultimate impact of Threads on Twitter may still require continuous feedback from subsequent data.
One perspective for predicting the future of Threads is the migration willingness of Twitter's key users. Meta has previously been fined by various countries due to Facebook's privacy issues, so key users may be more concerned about privacy leaks, which could lay the groundwork for actively migrating to Threads. However, Threads is a new social media channel for key users and does not conflict with the original Twitter platform. If Threads gains momentum, creators have nothing to worry about in terms of fan transfer. On the other hand, if Threads gradually fade out without any loss.
For ordinary users, Twitter's recent actions will generally have little impact. The real impact is on the group of "social media workers" who rely on Twitter for their livelihoods. They chase after traffic and actively experience new platforms.
As a practitioner in the Web 3 domain, the most important Web 3 information is still published on Twitter, which has richness and timeliness that new platforms don't have.
In conclusion, we believe that Threads can drive traffic through Instagram and achieve a closed loop between text and images, but it will not have a significant impact on Twitter's position in the short term. The most important aspect of social media development is user habits. Twitter's leading position over the years has shaped and consolidated user habits, as well as accumulated a super traffic pool and a large number of B2B advertisers. While early marketing for Threads has greatly increased its initial data, the key to sustaining its subsequent performance lies in product and operational innovation.
