Meta's Threads emerges as the first real threat to Twitter, with over 30 million users in just 18 hours

Meta's Threads scooped up more than 30 million sign-ups within just 18 hours of its introduction, appearing as the first major challenge to Elon Musk's Twitter, using its access to billions of Instagram users and a similar design to its competitor.

Threads, dubbed the "Twitter-Killer," was the top free app in Apple's App Store in the United Kingdom and the United States on Thursday. Its debut comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Musk have been exchanging insults for months, including threatening to fight in a real-life mixed martial arts cage competition in Las Vegas.

"The cage match has begun, and Zuckerberg has delivered a devastating blow." Insider Intelligence chief analyst Jasmine Enberg stated, "In many ways, it's exactly what you'd expect from Meta: stellar execution and an easy-to-navigate user interface."

Following Musk's $44 billion (almost Rs. 3,64,130 crore) acquisition of the social networking site last year, which was followed by a series of chaotic moves that alienated both users and advertisers, a slew of competitors have emerged. Musk's most recent step was to limit the amount of tweets that users may read every day.

Twitter's setbacks, analysts and experts say, open the door for a well-funded competitor like Meta Platforms, owing to its access to Instagram users and advertising prowess.

"Meta's release of Threads came at the perfect time to give it a fighting chance to unseat Twitter," said Niklas Myhr, professor of marketing at Chapman University, alluding to Twitter's turbulence following its decision to limit the number of tweets users can view.

"Threads will get off to a fast start because it is built on the Instagram platform, which has a massive user base, and if users adopt Threads, advertisers will be right behind."

Other rivals have had mixed results. Mastodon, another Twitter-like programme, has 1.7 million monthly active users, according to its website, while Bluesky, financed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has around 265,000 users.

According to a statement made before Musk's purchase, Twitter had 229 million monthly active users in May 2022.

Threads has several limits

While Threads is a separate app, users can log in using their Instagram credentials, making it a natural fit for Instagram's more than 2 billion monthly active users.

Threads' introduction was plainly a first attempt at a service, since it still lacks Twitter's bells and whistles.

"There should be a public conversations app with over a billion users." Twitter has had the opportunity to do so, but has failed to do so. "Hopefully," Zuckerberg said on Threads, where he now has a million followers.

Threads lacks hashtag and keyword search functionality, therefore users cannot follow real-time events as on Twitter. It also lacks a direct messaging capability and a desktop version, which certain users, such as commercial organisations, require.

Some users, like tech critic Marques Brownlee, expressed a desire for a feed that only contains the individuals they follow. Currently, users have minimal control over the primary stream.

In a post on Thursday, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was hired by Musk in May to bolster advertiser trust, stated that "everyone's voice matters" on the platform. "We're often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated."

There are now no advertisements on the Threads app, and Zuckerberg stated that the firm would consider monetization until there was a clear road to 1 billion users.

Threads' revenue could benefit from existing ad connections with Instagram and Facebook, according to Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

"Facebook is a less risky bet than Twitter and a larger player in the ad market."

Threads, according to some experts, was inspired by Meta's success in combining critical elements from platforms like as Snapchat and TikTok in the case of Instagram's Stories and Reels.

At least four brokerages increased their price targets for Meta, whose stock has already more than quadrupled in value this year.

Meta shares were down 0.3 percent on Thursday as part of a larger market selloff, after jumping 3 percent on Wednesday ahead of Threads' introduction.

The app is accessible in over 100 countries, but according to Bloomberg News, it will not be introduced in the European Union for the time being until Meta determines how data exchange between the new platform and its Instagram app will be regulated.