Threads vs. Twitter: how will this face-off end

Genuine craze broke out in the beginning of July around the new Meta project. But we have already seen this a few years ago when we strived to find an invite and get to Clubhouse, inaccessible for the general crowd. Back then, it was also swiftly gaining popularity:

• April 2020 — 1,500*
• May 2020 — 3,500
• December 2020 — 600,000
• January 2021 — 2 mln
• February 2021 — 8 mln
• March 2021 — 12 mln
• December 2021 — 34.3 mln

* total number of downloads worldwide

Read also: Seven translation and localization trends, managing the industry in 2023

Number of weekly Clubhouse downloads worldwide.

Source: hankookilbo.com

As you know, viral impact is temporary, so as time went, the app was mentioned less and less, and users started losing interest in it.

Number of active Clubhouse users worldwide per day

In April 2023, Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, the owners of the service, announced they were laying off 50% of their employees. People name the following as possible reasons for the app decline:

·         In the beginning their audience was growing fast due to giving out invites, and as a result the exclusivity effect was lost;

·         The developers delayed the Android version release too much, so when the moment came, the audience was not interested in the app anymore and didn’t wish to download it;

·         The most active users were not happy with the low content quality and unclear monetization methods;

·         The new voice chat format was soon adopted by the competitors — LinkedIn, Spotify, Reddit, and Telegram.

Will Threads follow the steps of Clubhouse?

Within the first five days after release Threads gained 100 million users and beat the record set by ChatGPT before (100 mln users in 2 months). Their primary competitor felt it at once. Matthew Prince, Cloudfllare CEO, shared a screenshot showing the decrease in Twitter traffic. Meanwhile, Threads still has not been released in the EU member states due to regulatory problems related to the digital market law.

Source: Matthew Prince🌥 Twitter

Read also: How to choose IT products’ localization contractor for foreign markets

According to Similarweb, who specialize in Web analytics, Twitter traffic decreased by 5% in the first two days after Threads release compared to the preceding week. The Elon Musk’s company has sent a letter to Meta accusing them of stealing a trade secret; allegedly, the new app was created by former Twitter employees as a copy thereof.

Elon Musk’s lawyer’s letter to Meta. Source: cnbc.com

Andy Stone, Meta Communications Director, replied to this in his account: “None of the Threads engineering team members are former Twitter employees.”

Apart from the viral effect, Threads’ explosive growth is explained by it being linked to Instagram, so the users can easily register using their existing accounts and preserve some of their subscribers.

Predicting further development of Meta’s new product is difficult. According to SensorTower and SimilarWeb, at the moment the daily number of active users and time on the social network app is decreasing. Meanwhile, the app is still in its initial development stages, and it’s only natural that the registration boom is gradually slowing down, and the users do not yet know what to do there.

Main differences between Threads and Twitter for users

Using Threads for your business

After Elon Musk arrived on Twitter, a lot of advertisers, including General Motors, Volkswagen, Apple, Amazon, and Disney, terminated or significantly cut down their advertising costs. As a result, Twitter’s advertising income dropped by 59% in a year. Marketing specialists started looking for new platforms for their campaigns without the need to compromise reach or quality. Thus, the emergence of Threads drew the attention of both large and small brands.

Nine out of ten largest retailers in America, including Walmart and Kroger, have already activated their Threads accounts. Reese, Nike, Calvin Klein, Kith, Allbirds, Shein and Uniqlo were the first among the consumer brands.

But Threads doesn’t offer advertising space for sale at the moment. Though we know that this option might become available in the nearest future. And for now, marketing specialists can promote their brands using images, videos and posts. We recommend using the most successful and popular tweets from the brand Twitter page as the first few posts for an effective start.

Content worth publishing onThreads (for a business):

• Issues capable of inducing reflection, discussion or heated debate, as this social network is perfect for creating a community.
• Simple tips on your product/service or industry; people readily share those.
• Exclusive news, pictures, backstages, and limited-time offers.
• Regular updates on your brand, industry events or news to keep the subscribers’ interest up.

Conclusion

Threads is not an innovative or fresh platform with virtual reality and features, it is actually a copy of Twitter. But Zuckerberg clearly understands the public moods. People want a familiar network without Elon Musk to get their joy of life and freedom back. And Meta has a great chance of doing just that. But only time will tell whether they’ll succeed.

Read also: 7 CAT programs that make the translator’s life easier