Meta's new Threads trial experience: There is still a long way to go before the "Twitter killer"

Recently, whether it is Reddit's announcement to close the free API, or Twitter's opening of the fee-based crawling mode and limiting the number of views, a large number of users have been dissatisfied. Users who were originally lazy to migrate to useful products have also opened up the need to find the next social platform. Just today, Meta, which is also the overlord in the social field, launched the APP Threads, which is facing the line of Twitter, which can be said to have seized the window of opportunity.

So what are the special features of this new product, what is the differentiated competition point with Twitter, and can it still retain users well after the "sweet period"? Odaily Planet Daily experienced it for the first time, and shared the evaluation experience as follows:

The basic functions and usage process of Threads

Threads is now officially live, and the APP can be downloaded in the Apple Store and Google Play Store. Since Threads and Instagram have integrated accounts in the background, if you have an Instagram account, you can directly authorize login without registration.

On the whole, its UI is relatively simple, and its related functions are basically consistent with Twitter.

However, there are some functions in Twitter that Threads does not yet have, such as list classification and so on. But after all, the product has just launched, and its initial version is sufficient as a replacement for Twitter.

When we tried this product for the first time, our first impression was that it was a "text version of Instagram". In addition to adding the thread function in Twitter, isn't it just putting the text section on top of the image section, which is more like an extension of Instagram. Supplements in text rendering. (At this point, Xiaohongshu has already done quite well at the product level.)

Internet social laurel, thus changing hands?

According to Techcrunch, more than 2 million users signed up for Threads within the first two hours of its launch. In addition, the data shows that Threads has risen to No. 27 in the App Store Social (Free List).

How Threads' impact on Twitter will ultimately require continuous feedback from follow-up data.

One angle to predict the stamina of Threads is the willingness of Twitter's big V to migrate. Meta has previously been fined by various countries because of Facebook privacy issues. Big Vs may be more worried about privacy leaks than ordinary users. This may pave the way for an active move to Threads. However, Threads is a new social media channel for big V, and it does not conflict with the original Twitter position. If Threads is coming aggressively, creators don’t have to worry about taking over from their fans; on the contrary, Threads will gradually fade out, and there will be no loss.

For ordinary users, Twitter's recent actions will have little impact in most cases. What really affects is the group that relies on Twitter to "make a living". These "social media workers" will follow the traffic and will actively experience the new platform.

As a practitioner in the Web3 field, the most important Web3 information is still released on Twitter. The richness and timeliness of the information are not available on the new platform.

To sum up, we believe that Threads can attract traffic through Instagram and achieve a closed loop between text and images, but it will not have a big impact on Twitter's status in the short term. The most important point in the development of social media is user habits. Twitter’s leading position for many years has shaped and consolidated user habits, and has also accumulated a super traffic pool and a huge number of to B advertisers. Although the marketing of Threads in the early stage has greatly improved the online data, the key to supporting its subsequent performance lies in product and operation innovation.