Five days ago, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the launch of Threads, which is a direct competitor to Twitter. In only four days, the platform reached 100 million users, which is simply unprecedented.
By comparison, Twitter took five years to reach the same milestone. Even more astoundingly is that Threads reached this milestone faster than even ChatGPT, the global AI phenomenon.
The platform is tied to Instagram, as you can’t use it without an Instagram account. It functions very similar to Twitter, offering features like:
- Liking
- Commenting
- Sharing
- Reposting
- Videos of up to 5 minutes
- 500 characters per thread
Because Threads has so many similarities to Twitter, Elon Musk claimed that the platform is effectively a copycat project and slammed Zuckerberg for the idea.
Their cage fight is already becoming a legend on social media.
Threads don’t allow direct messaging, trending stories, or hashtags, though. So, one might say that it isn’t a Twitter copycat either.
Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO, said that “Clearly, Twitter has taken a leading role in this area. And there are lots of great offerings out there for public speaking. But given what was going on, we thought there was an opportunity to build something that was open and something that was a good fit for the community that was already using Instagram.“
Mosseri also said that Threads is not a replacement for Twitter and that the two platforms can safely coexist without affecting one another (too much).
Twitter is taking this seriously, though. Their lawyer filed a legal paper where he claimed that Meta had hired ex-Twitter employees when designing Threads.
In turn, Meta denied these claims. For now, the situation is yet unclear but the two companies haven’t reached a point of no return.
Sources
- Cryptosaurus – Twitter’s New Rival Threads Hits 100 Million Users in 4 Days
- The New York Times – A “Cage Match” Between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg May Be No Joke
