Twitter: Zuckerberg pokes Musk with 1st tweet in a decade – 7/6/2023 – Tech

In his first Twitter message in over a decade, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted the Spider-Man meme pointing to another Spider-Man, in an apparent reference to similarities between Elon Musk’s social network and Threads. , launched by the founder of Facebook this Wednesday (5).

On the new platform, Zuckerberg wrote: “It’s going to take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with over 1 billion people. Twitter had the opportunity to do this, but it didn’t make it. I hope we do.”

Ten million people signed up for Threads, created by Meta to rival Twitter, just seven hours after launch, Zuckerberg announced Thursday.

The network, which went live on Wednesday at 8:00 pm (Brasília time) in 100 countries and currently works without advertising, is the biggest threat to date against Twitter, which belongs to Elon Musk, which is facing problems for several reasons.

“Let’s go. Welcome to Threads”, wrote Zuckerberg, in his account on the new platform. Shortly after, he announced that “10 million people signed up in seven hours”.

Meta’s CEO answered the questions of several people in the first hours of operation of the platform, which had an early launch from Thursday to Wednesday.

“One important thing is the number of world champion MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighters on Threads,” wrote American fighter Jon Jones.

In the App Store, the platform is described as “Instagram’s text-based social networking app”, a presentation that, added to images, looks similar to Twitter.

“We hope [a Threads] can be an open and welcoming platform for debate “, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri wrote. ′′ If that’s what you want too, the best thing is to be kind “.

“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics we care about today to what’s trending tomorrow,” the app’s description reads.

The launch of Threads comes just four months after the first rumors about the project leaked.

“We are thinking about an independent and decentralized social network to share text messages in real time,” the group said in a statement sent to AFP on Tuesday.

An eventual setback for Twitter

Meta has not made a formal announcement about the launch of the platform, which takes place a few days after a new controversy related to Twitter.

On Saturday, the main shareholder of the bluebird network, Elon Musk, announced the imposition of a limit on the number of views accessible to users that did not go down well with twitterers, developers and advertisers.

The decision is part of a series of changes that the tycoon has implemented on the platform and which have been poorly received, such as the new rules for profiles verified by subscription and the dismissal of almost all staff dedicated to content moderation.

In addition, on Monday (3), Twitter announced that the TweetDeck extension, very popular among more frequent users and companies, would only be accessible through the subscription plan.

For now, Meta has chosen not to offer Threads to residents of the European Union, until the implications for the company and its products are clarified under the new Digital Markets Regulation (DMA), which came into effect in early May, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The DMA seeks to impose specific rules on key internet companies, particularly Meta, to prevent anti-competitive practices.

However, the group from Menlo Park (California) intends, in the long term, to launch Threads in the European Union, on a date yet to be defined, indicated a source close to the subject.

take-off platform

Meta does not hide its strategy for its recently launched application to grow quickly, since, from the very beginning, it decided to present it as an arm of Instagram, which is “the most successful product of the Meta family”, says Pinar Yildirim , professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

“They could not associate this new product with Facebook, because that name no longer pleases anyone”.

With more than two billion active users, Instagram offers Threads a platform to take off that Twitter’s smaller competitors like Mastodon and Bluesky, or the ultra-conservative networks of choice like Truth Social, Speak, Gettr and Gab, would only dream of.

Thus, Threads allows Instagram users to authenticate directly if they already have a profile to publish content on the new platform.

“The equation is simple: if an Instagram user with a significant amount of followers like [Kim] kardashian, [Justin] Bieber or [Lionel] Messi starts posting regularly on Threads, the new platform can grow quickly and I believe advertising budgets will follow suit in the short term,” wrote Substack analyst Brian Wieser.

Some celebrities already appeared to have profiles on Threads at launch time, including singer Shakira, model Karlie Kloss and actor Jack Black.

This trend could be even more concerning for Twitter, as the San Francisco-based company has seen its advertising revenue evaporate since the arrival of Elon Musk.

Regarding the personal data of users collected by Threads, the description indicates that, among others, contacts and geolocation will be collected, which will be used for advertising purposes.