Technology @kbin.social genesis @kbin.social 2y ago

Meta officially launches Twitter rival Threads. 10 million have joined already

edition.cnn.com Meta officially launches Twitter rival Threads. 10 million have joined already | CNN Business

Facebook has tried to compete with Twitter in numerous ways over the years, including copying signature Twitter features such as hashtags and trending topics. But now Facebook’s parent company is taking perhaps its biggest swipe at Twitter yet.

67 comments

It's sad people flee one shitty dystopia for another.
- People don't care about principles when it comes to a social media site (or really anything for that matter). They want something easy to use, that everyone is on.
  
  I'm almost certain there's a first to market FOMO kinda thing happening with influencers/scammers/advertisers. Everyone with that disgusting "grindset" mentality on Instagram just got a blank slate on an entirely new platform with a lot of media attention.
  
  I care about following cool people and browsing porn, and I don't think Instagram is gonna let the latter fly.
- and dont even know it
  
  I know I'm practically begging for downvotes here, but it is also possible that some people are perfectly aware of the tradeoffs, pros, and cons of social media, and have decided that the positives outweigh the negatives. That you have different priorities doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else is stupid or ignorant.
- I mean some people just want a social media app without Elon Musk...
Why do they move from one evil corporation to another, instead of moving to alternatives like Mastodon?
- Because to an average person mastadon is confusing and niche, nobody they want to talk to is on there and they don't care about the ethics or privacy implications.
  
  Maybe, but I think it has more to do with the wall-to-wall mainstream news coverage of the launch of Threads in recent days, compared to the relative handful of isolated mentions Mastodon has had in the last 12 months.
  
  If people didn't care about ethics or privacy, that doesn't mean they won't switch to Mastodon, it merely doesn't mean they will go. Those people will just go where the crowds go.
  
  Just because of the sheer power of marketing, really. I dabbled with Mastodon, but it wasn't any harder to use than Twitter. Maybe some people just disengage entirely when they hear about instances when in practice for a casual user it makes very little difference.
- Because Mastodon is the Linux of social media...and we all know how popular that OS is on the desktop. Techie people have a habit of putting themselves in a bubble and think everything is as easy to use for a normal person as it is for them.
  
  I've stopped explaining it to my friends and family because they literally just give me blank stares when I even say the word "federated". If they want to come over, they can figure it out on their own just like I did. You can't beat it into them.
  
  It's the advantage of advertising money and monopoly abuse. Nobody advertises linux, when's the last time you saw a linux commercial? You don't. You'll never be inundated with linux or fediverse advertisements, so nobody gets to find out you exist. You'll notice how in the media free software is never mentioned, ever, unless it's something scary with the tired old picture of a dude in masked street garb looking to steal your families identity and make them destitute.
  
  At some point, honestly, it's just inertia. My sister is smart enough to figure out Mastodon, she calls instances confusing because she just doesn't WANT to move. She's still on Facebook, saying she's just not into Twitter or Reddit like stuff, but she'll be on Threads I bet.
  
  I don't think we need to be the biggest thing in the world, though, as long as we have ENOUGH people in the Fediverse to be active.
- Threads is easier to get into than Mastodon.
- People want to be "where it's happening" and mastodon isn't that. Which might be fine for the people that do use it, but mastodon isn't going to be a platform where you can potentially interact with celebrities, politicians and journalists the way that twitter was for example any time soon.
I have just read elsewhere that they're using the same account as Instagram uses. So if you have an Instagram account, and have done nothing with Threads at all, they're likely still counting you as a Threads user.

tl;dr: They're being misleading.
- I'm pretty sure there are far more than 10 million people with Instagram accounts. There's probably a lot more than that in the US alone.
  
  yeah my insta was not set up for threads when i opened the app. i had to purposefully consent to linking the two accounts. Seems to me like its 10 mil actual users.
  
  Wasn’t there a statement recently that meta wasn’t doing threads in some regions? Specifically the EU?
- Instagram has 1.21 billion users worldwide.
- The number includes opt-in's only. It makes joining very easy, but it's still a ridiculously high day one adoption regardless.
- You still have to create a profile on Threads when you set it up. Instagram is waaaay bigger than just 10 million users.
  
  For context, Instagram has two BILLION users. Facebook has just shy of three billion.
  
  Mastodon has a total of ten million.
- They're not counting all Instagram users. However, if you have an Instagram account, all you have to do is download the Threads app, and it'll log in with the same saved credentials. The barrier to entry is extremely low, so a lot of people have at least tried it.
Yeah, but do they have... Europeans? Nope. That's content you can only get in the Fediverse.
Damn already more than double the users of Mastodon
The amount of sign ups their getting is insane they might actually kill off Twitter.
- It sounds like a lot until you realize that Threads is basically just a DLC pack for Instagram, which already has one of the world's largest user bases as it is - something like ~2.5b users, I believe.
  
  I find it hard to consider any user count on Threads to be "growth", when the accounts have already existed since before Threads launched. It's like if a bakery sold cakes to 500 customers a day, and then decides to start selling pies, as well. If the same 500 cake customers come back and buy pies, the restaurant didn't gain any new customers; it's just the same customer base enjoying a different product being offered now. Maybe this is just me being pedantic, maybe this is just me reaching for a reason to downplay Meta. I dunno.
  
  This is exactly my feeling as well. I like the design of it, but it doesn't feel like it's own thing. It feels like alternative content from the people I already follow on Instagram. It's like an echo chamber in an echo chamber.
  
  I'll be curious to see if they ever decide to open it up to non-Insta users. I turn to Microblogging like Mastodon/Twitter for a completely different social media experience, not a different side of the same coin.
  
  But in your metaphor there is an important part missing. Twitter, the pie shop around the corner, just lost a chunk of customers to the bakery. Now I’m not saying this will kill twitter, I think Elon manages just fine on his own. But it’s going to contribute to its death, as it gives people an easy alternative.
I was going to join just to reserve my handle, but then I saw you can't even make a purely chronological feed of just accounts you follow. That is base level functionality for me and all I really want in a Twitter replacement. I'll give it some time.
- Or just don't because it's Facebook and they're a horrible company.
  
  That would probably be smart.
hot damn 10 million already? now people can get the double doom scrolling achievement
Wow. That is pretty crazy.
Is this thread closed off? I’m pretty sure it’s all one way isn’t it. It can be used to view other instances but the data isn’t going out from thread.

67 comments