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🗝️ Tomorrow → Meta's "Twitter Killer"

⚡ READ TIME: 2 mins

Author

Kole Ogundipe
July 05, 2023

Hello, Marketers.

Welcome to the midweek edition of The Keyword!

Let’s jump in 🪂

NEWS

It’s official. Instagram is launching a new, separate app on July 6th called ‘Threads’

Threads is basically a text-based version of Instagram.

However, the app has been delayed in Europe due to privacy concerns.

What we know so far

  • Threads has a Twitter-style feed

  • You can upload links, images, and videos

  • You can log in with your Instagram username

  • To engage posts use likes, replies, and reposts

  • And easily follow the same accounts you follow on Instagram

  • The maximum length of posts is thought to be 500 characters

  • An early version had the tagline: “Instagram for your thoughts”

“Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”

Threads App Store Listing:

Why the new app?

During an internal all-hands meeting, Meta’s Chief Product Officer told employees the company thinks creators want a version of Twitter that is “sanely run”.

And Zuckerberg said during a recent podcast with Lex Fridman, “I’ve always thought that Twitter should have a billion people using it.” Twitter has in the region of 250M daily active users.

The real reason…

The data Meta will generate from Threads conversations will be incredibly valuable.

Meta is part of the race to create the AI system of the future (like ChatGPT). And that relies on high-quality data to train their systems.

Inevitably, Meta will also use the text data to enhance its audience profiles. Improving the relevancy of the ads that they can show to users across all of Meta’s platforms.

But AI is arguably the biggest reason of all.

Why we care

There seems to be a lot of excitement among users who have either stopped or relucantly continued using Twitter in the Musk-era. Several other Twitter competitors have emerged but Thread’s advantage is the direct integration with Instagram, that will make onboarding IG users seemless. This could be a big win for Meta.

You can download the Threads app:

Thanks for reading!

✍️ Kole