Mark Zuckerberg and the Quest for Social Network Supremacy

Zuck's new app. also see what i did there in the title. quest. meta quest. get it. im so cool

Elon bought Twitter for $44 Billion a while ago and has since gone on a rampage firing 80% of its employees (including several executives), introduced his $8 per month blue checkmark, made changes to the algorithm to support his political beliefs in a quest for free speech, floated the idea of joining it with X.com (with dreams of it becoming the WeChat of America) and also installed a CEO to take charge of Twitter so that he can shift focus back to his other companies.

Mark Zuckerberg on the other hand has averted disaster (together with the rest of the market thanks to AI and positive words from the Fed). In fact the last time I wrote about Meta, it was literally the week it bottomed. Too bad I was distracted by a gremlin stealing my magic internet money that week. Anyways, Meta has increased by over 200% since then and Mark is certainly pleased.

He’s so pleased that he announced his new social network two days ago called Threads. Threads is Meta’s response to Elon’s Twitter and he says its goal is to be “a friendly place” for communication which he thinks Twitter has failed at. Makes sense considering Elon has become a tyrant on Twitter and went full right politically in the guise of “first amendment” and “free speech” to make up for the previous leaderships left leaning bias.

On the left, Mastodon and Bluesky were cool for a week but they faced friction as people had to restart their pages and start from ground zero. While that is a great way to start a social network to get a new set of native influencers, it’s a lot to ask people to change social networks, lose their following and followers and having to start from zero again. It’s just way too convenient to keep using the old platform with all your data there. Also didn’t help that these Twitter alternatives didn’t have a main selling pitch for users other than just being a Twitter for people who love the functions of Twitter but hate the political beliefs of its owner. These platforms also went to the other extreme politically which doesn’t benefit them. Imagine trying to compete against Twitter by cloning their app and removing the most critical function for the average user (arguing with strangers online about political beliefs).

On the right, Parler and Gab were a thing briefly during the reign of Donald Trump and didn’t fare too well. Trump’s new venture Truth Social has given the Donald a nice chunk of change but will probably end up harming him in 2024 due to no one caring about Truth Social. Elon has invited him back but he is financially and legally forced to use Truth Social. Also his devoted fans invested in Truth Social’s SPAC through $DWAC so he will probably lose some key support if he starts using Twitter (though at this point its already down 85% from its peak so whats another -15% (of peak value) to zero lmao).

As we have seen, going extremely political for a tech company usually doesn’t work out.

Threads

On the other hand, Mark wants to build a friendly alternative for Twitter and he is doing this by importing Instagram users into Threads. You can log in through your Instagram account and it will automatically import your following and followers lists and even stuff like blocked accounts, bio, profile pic, username and a bunch of cool stuff.

Also if your following isn’t on Threads, it will just show it as pending for now and then follow them when they finally join the platform. This means that the Instagram elite can continue their reign and influence. The platform is still really basic for now and you can only see a profile page of threads, a profile’s thread replies and a main homepage which is basically like the explore page in thread form. That’s it. Only three pages but obviously they will release more as time goes on. As of the time of writing this, it has surpassed 50 million users in the first two days. For reference, Instagram has 2.35 billion monthly active users (MAU) and Twitter has 300 million MAU. So Meta is catching up quickly.

Twitter and Instagram had different audiences. While Twitter has always been a political clown show (before and after musk), there were different communities on Twitter where people who want to write can communicate their thoughts. When I was really active on Twitter, I found FinTwit and CryptoTwitter useful and made sure to distance myself from the tomfoolery by blocking all politics and celebrity related buzz words like “trump” “biden” “obama” “democrat” “republican” “kardashian” etc. to instead focus on Tech , Fin and CT’s circus performances.

As someone who has spent thousands of hours of finite human life on Twitter and barely any time on Instagram, Threads seems like if Instagram captions came to life and could talk. Oh god the horror.

I have used a bunch of new social media platforms of pretty similar levels of success (that is zero success after initial hype) and the vibe is usually the same. It’s a bunch of people playing status games to reach the top of this new social hierarchy whether thats by reposting viral content, giveaways or whatever hot new growth hacking trend is out there. It’s a whole new world that’s ripe for capture by playing cringe games to hopefully rise the ranks before the ruling incumbents come to claim their throne.

Threads is different in that it skips the whole new social media game as everyone’s followers and following are imported from Instagram. You already recognise the profile picture and bio and everything feels familiar but ever so slightly different. This approach is similar to the way Substack Notes was launched. Substack already had a platform for people to write and built Substack Notes on top of it. I was a Notes user for about two days before it became boring.

Doesn’t help Threads that its only on mobile for now. As ex-twitter intern georgehortz threaded “Instagram IQ is the real problem with threads”. While Threads is going to have huge success purely from Instagram accounts and as the best Twitter alternative by the man who has conquered the art of the social network, in the long run it needs the Tweeter. I doubt Threads can survive long with just the Grammer who loves pictures and reels of cats, dinners and vacations. To paraphrase Mike Solana, it needs to vampire attack the core of Twitter, the hardcore Tweeters, and bring them to the promise land of a more colourful text based social network filled with endless dopamine without a tyrannical ruler.

Threads will also be the place for exiled traditional media companies and “journalists” to seek refuge after being constantly targeted and attacked by the Musk regime. As Mark threaded, “We are definitely focusing on kindness and making this a friendly place” and a more direct shot at Twitter, “The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success. That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently”.

What does this mean for Meta and Twitter? Probably some more Antitrust hearings for Mark and in the near future a way more entertaining cage match between the two.

To conclude, I quit Twitter a couple months ago not for Musk takeover reasons but for sanity amidst the onslaught of Twitter growth hackers who ruined the platform. Anyways

follow me on Instagram and Threads.

Sent from my Meta Quest 2