New York: Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is set to deliver a blow to Elon Musk on late Wednesday night, as the tech billionaires rivalry goes a step ahead with the launch of Instagram’s much-anticipated Threads platform, a clone of Twitter. While Threads is launching as a standalone app, screenshots posted on Apple’s App Store reveal that users can log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same accounts.
With this, Mark Zuckerberg posts on Twitter after 11 years.
Analysts believe that the launch of Instagram’s much-anticipated Threads platform might salivate investors over the possibility that Threads ties to Instagram might give it a built-in user base and advertising apparatus, which could siphon ad dollars from Twitter as its new CEO tries to revive the microblogging company’s struggling business.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram said “the idea is to hopefully build an open, friendly space for communities”. Threads is positioned as an app where people can have real-time, public conversations with one another. It will help boost Instagram, which is a marquee app in Meta’s family of products.
Threads looks nearly identical to Twitter as users can post mostly text-based messages to a scrolling feed, where people who follow them and whom they can follow can reply. People can also post photos or videos to the app. However, it is also different from Twitter as it currently does not support direct messaging.