Zuckerberg sees Threads as Meta's next 1 billion user network
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Mark Zuckerberg envisions Threads as the potential next social network sensation for Meta, with aspirations of reaching a staggering 1 billion users.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers the keynote address at Facebook's F8 Developer Conference at McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. (Getty Images via AFP)
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is optimistic about Threads, his competitor to Twitter. During Meta's second-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg expressed excitement about the app's potential for text-based conversations, emphasizing that no other app of this kind has reached 1 billion users yet.
While Threads quickly reached 100 million signups, it has not yet reached the coveted 1-billion-user mark. The focus for Threads is now on improving retention among existing users and adding key missing features, according to Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg compared Meta's approach to standalone apps as a venture capital portfolio, where some ideas may not work, but one might become a success.
Despite the significant losses in Meta's Reality Labs division due to augmented and virtual reality product development, the company feels no pressure to monetize Threads in the near future, Meta CEO claims.
He further revealed that ads won't be introduced to Threads until it reaches "hundreds of millions" of users, and the priority is to grow the app and take advantage of the unexpected opportunity it presents. Meta's established social networks, including Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, continue to experience substantial growth, with Facebook surpassing 3 billion monthly users.
Despite the challenges ahead, Zuckerberg remains committed to the long road ahead for Threads.
Twitter's worsening crisis
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter, has unveiled a new Twitter logo, opting for a "minimalist art deco" X as part of the platform's rebranding.
Insider Intelligence, a market research company, has recently reported that Twitter is expected to make less than $3 billion in 2023, down around one-third year on year since 2022.
Simultaneously, Musk has attempted to draw revenues from the app by instituting an $11 per month payment from verified accounts. Moreover, he recently announced that users' Twitter views will be limited, which would restrict the time they could spend on the app while giving verified accounts the greater luxury of viewing larger amounts of tweets per day.
The tycoon's announcement was followed by the launch of Threads by major rival Meta, as Mark Zuckerberg and his team look to take advantage of Twitter's crisis by drawing its users' toward their free-to-use app.
It is estimated that the Bird app holds around 200 million regular users, however, continuous technical failures due to overcrowding of the app's servers have put Musk under the spotlight.
The world's richest, who also owns Tesla and Space X, threatened to sue Meta, saying they stole trade secrets and intellectual property, claims which Meta denies.
