Threads is officially launched in the European Union this Thursday, December 14 at 12 pm The social network, created by the Meta group, also owner of Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp, presented it as a competitor to Twitter at a time when the latter , in the midst of the turmoil, was being bought by Elon Musk.
The competition is completely dominated by Meta, which has given its platform an appearance very similar to what we find on Twitter. But will Threads become the strong competitor that Meta wants to become?
Threads depends on Meta, which already manages Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. If their networks were quickly reached by Tiktok, the truth is that Meta has a significant impact on the social media market. When Threads launched in the United States, no less than 100 million users signed up in less than a week, an industry record.
The advertisement effect
But at the same time, many of these users got caught up in the effect of the ad, only to leave the platform rather quickly. It must be said that Threads was not launched at a random time. It was last July, when Twitter, which had not yet changed its name, began to take measures that its users did not like. Therefore, many Internet users have seen Threads as an alternative to what Twitter has become today.
Today, a few months after the launch of Threads in the United States, Twitter is still at the same point, if not worse. The social network was renamed The moment is therefore still opportune for Meta, which can take great advantage of its competitor’s weaknesses.
However, today, with its 350 million users, Elon Musk’s platform continues to be the scene of companies’ biggest announcements, although a large number of them are now reluctant to offer advertising there.
Twitter, the public square
We can mention, for example, the announcement of the publication of the video game trailer. grand theft car 6, December 5th. The tweet from Rockstar Games, the game’s publisher, was seen by 24.5 million people, has more than half a million likes and almost 70,000 reposts.
On Threads, the same post got just under 80,000 likes.
Certainly, the recent arrival of the social network explains these figures. But the fact is that these days big announcements are made on Twitter, they are expected there and making things happen will be a long-term job for Meta.
The advantage of regulation
Finally, the launch of Threads in Europe was slowed down so that the social network would comply with the WFD. When it was available in the United States, it was mandatory to have an Instagram account to register: a practice prohibited by the new regulation on digital services. This is no longer the case as of September 27, one of the reasons that allowed Threads to be available in the EU.
By showing its credentials to European regulations, Meta takes over Twitter. The latter has been under investigation by the European Commission since October 12 for alleged dissemination of “false information”, “violent and terrorist content” or “hate speech”, particularly in the context of Hamas attacks against Israel.
We can easily say that Threads has the potential to dethrone X, but it’s obvious that this is a multi-year gamble for the group. But if Meta manages to convince its billions of users to try their luck, and Twitter continues to disappoint its own, the bet could well be won.
Source: BFM TV
