Meta Platforms, the parent company of popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, has officially launched a new app called Threads in competition to Twitter.
Threads, which was launched on Wednesday, has already registered millions of sign-ups, including from various celebrities and politicians. The app incorporates a layout and features similar to Twitter, and aims to attract advertisers who are seeking an alternative amid billionaire Elon Musk’s chaotic ownership of the company.
“The vision for Threads is to create an option and friendly public space for conversation,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Threads post following its launch. “We hope to take what Instagram does best and create a new experience around text, ideas, and discussing what’s on your mind.”
Threads passed five million sign-ups in the first five hours, according to Zuckerberg.
Threads will allow a limit of 500 characters per post, Meta said, adding its Twitter rival will be accessible in 100 countries via Android and Apple’s iOS. Threads has not been launched in the EU yet, owing to mounting regulatory concerns over Meta’s handling of personal data, however.
The new app arrives as Twitter struggles to retain advertisers. Musk’s $44 billion takeover has kept Twitter in a critical position, with advertisers fleeing the troubled platform in response to Musk’s erratic decisions and radical changes.
Earlier this week, Twitter placed its online dashboard TweetDeck behind the paywall. TweetDeck is widely used by news organisations and various other businesses to organise and monitor content across the platform. Users have been given 30 days’ time to verify their accounts (by availing the Twitter Blue subscription service) in order to continue using or access TweetDeck.
Before monetising TweetDeck, Musk had imposed a limit on the number of tweets readers can view a day, which triggered a wave of criticism and resentment among longtime users. The limit was placed to address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation, according to Musk.
“It is rather galling to have to bring large numbers of servers online on an emergency basis just to facilitate some AI startup’s outrageous valuation.”
Prior to the announcement, Twitter had suffered a massive service disruption similar to the outage that had rocked the platform in March.
The launch of Threads has escalated the rivalry between Meta and Twitter.
