4 ms·

Meta Threads engagement has dropped off since red-hot debut, tracking firms say

elforce002 3y ago
I think Twitter wants to compete with yt by the direction Twitter is going. I saw a tweet from one user suggesting a video/photo feed just like ig, followed by a reply from Elon saying that might happen. The other thing is that threads is basically Instagram but without all the features ig has right now. Facebook is being careful since they don't want to cannibalize ig with threads since ig doesn't have any competitors rn. If you add photos, videos, etc... to threads, then you will have q repost issue. Are ig users going to repost their content on threads just because or viceversa? Why should I follow you if that's the case? The third part (controversial) is that you have to "thread" carefully because of content moderation guidelines. I'm left or right but let's call a spade a spade: social media, in its entirety, is left leaning. If you take that into consideration, then you'll loose at least 40% of your user base. Threads is aiming get most brands, celebrities, and influencers to be on the platform, having a "Twitter" like experience they can control (with fb's help) and monetize it asap. They know hot takes (politics, news, sports to a certain extent...) are difficult to control; That's why zuck said they weren't trying to "compete with Twitter" because those things divide people really fast, but takes regarding celebrities, food, etc... Are what brands want. Twitter will still be "that" place. Threads (if it doesn't cannibalize ig) will be the alternative only if you want to engage with the same content you see in ig, but text version (dull and false, most of the time).
dbish 3y ago
If you have no follow feed and you’re forced to come back and see low effort posts and pictures from influencers instead every time you check it out, yeah, that’ll do it.
- oseph 3y ago
  After most of my Threads sessions, my feed is essentially full of "Posts from this user have been muted" after silencing all the force-fed clickbait garbage tossed my way. The interface is clean and light and honestly I like it. But I'd like it even more if I could have a feed showing only the users I follow.
  - tornato7 3y ago
    This ruined Facebook years ago for me and continues to make social media unappealing. I used to open Facebook every day, scroll down to see all my friends' new posts, and then close it once it said "all caught up!" Of course, Facebook decided that the possibility of actually being "done" browsing Facebook for the day is a no-go, they want me engaged for 25 hours a day, so they will endlessly throw irrelevant crap at you.
- astrange 3y ago
  The recommendation feed shows the issue with "filter bubble" theory - if you start seeing posts from people in your outgroup, it doesn't familiarize you with them, it makes you even /more/ annoyed with them. In the case of Threads for me that's a class of influencer that posts nothing but unsolicited love advice or things like "if your friends hurt you they were never really your friends" that are supposed to be 'relatable' but just make it sound like they have BPD.
impulser_ 3y ago
Not surprising. No web app, no following feed, no hashtag for searching. It basically just text version of Instagram. I want to see more of the post from people I follow, not random celebrities and companies. Seems like the leadership doesn't understand what made Twitter popular, it's the 5th most visited website in the world despite having less than a third of active users as the 4th place Instagram.
- lern_too_spel 3y ago
  And the web page stupidly asks me to log in if I want to see more of a user's posts. I can't take their claims that they will publish posts via ActivityPub seriously.
- beams_of_light 3y ago
  I think the biggest problem is there’s no anonymity. Most people aren’t willing to share their real opinions under their real name.
- mikewarot 3y ago
  >No web app Oh... I thought it was just me missing the login box somewhere in the floating galaxy and abstract art in the middle of their page. </snark>
- chii 3y ago
  > No web app this is the biggest mistake imho. I am not going to download an app, create an account, just to view something. I will not even go test it out if it's not convenient.
  - yunohn 3y ago
    > just to view something I can open and read links on my mobile browser without the app?
  - anon373839 3y ago
    Same. I have never had a Twitter account or downloaded their app. The day Elon Musk threw up the login wall, I read my last tweet. Reddit is in the same category. If they shut off the public website, they’ll be dead to me as well.
HumblyTossed 3y ago
Two words: Follow Feed.
Rebelgecko 3y ago
Their "red hot" debut was about as good as Google+'s
0xy 3y ago
All the "THIS time Twitter is in trouble!" posters are nowhere to be found. The Google+ of Twitter clones predictably is already floundering. Network effects are a hell of a thing, not that Threads was even a good product. The algorithm SUCKS, the feed is just random garbage instead of relevant content that interests you, or current world events. SELECT * FROM posts ORDER BY RAND() doesn't make for a good social media experience.
NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
Well what did you expect? The premiere of any social media app is going to signal a Gold Rush in terms of account creation. You're going to attract the claim-stakers, their foil the name-squatters, the botters, the sleeper-creators, the early-adopters, the refugees of St. Elsewhere, the megalomaniacs, the API-experimenters, the app-writers. And then all those accounts are going to go dark and bide their time, because account creation was the goal, not engagement or participation.
erulabs 3y ago
I just think the moral story is somewhat humorous. Jumping from twitter to threads is like swapping your Russian AK47 for an Israeli Galil and imagining you’ve made some moral improvement. If that’s the only reason to swap, you can count on most people yawning.
- 0xFFOOFF 3y ago
  Galil is objectively better than an AK47 though.
  - erulabs 3y ago
    Of course! But is it enough better?
astrange 3y ago
That's not an actual problem for them. It's been less than a week, and you don't need all your users to visit every day.
111111IIIIIII 3y ago
[dead]
ryzvonusef 3y ago
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1680082007873953794 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1680082007873953794 > We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load. Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else. I maintain my assertion that what might kill twitter is not threads or any other competitor, but simple cashflow problems. Elon is asset-rich but cash-poor, and I don't know how long he can fund his current hobby.

I think Twitter wants to compete with yt by the direction Twitter is going. I saw a tweet from one user suggesting a video/photo feed just like ig, followed by a reply from Elon saying that might happen. The other thing is that threads is basically Instagram but without all the features ig has right now. Facebook is being careful since they don't want to cannibalize ig with threads since ig doesn't have any competitors rn. If you add photos, videos, etc... to threads, then you will have q repost issue. Are ig users going to repost their content on threads just because or viceversa? Why should I follow you if that's the case? The third part (controversial) is that you have to "thread" carefully because of content moderation guidelines. I'm left or right but let's call a spade a spade: social media, in its entirety, is left leaning. If you take that into consideration, then you'll loose at least 40% of your user base. Threads is aiming get most brands, celebrities, and influencers to be on the platform, having a "Twitter" like experience they can control (with fb's help) and monetize it asap. They know hot takes (politics, news, sports to a certain extent...) are difficult to control; That's why zuck said they weren't trying to "compete with Twitter" because those things divide people really fast, but takes regarding celebrities, food, etc... Are what brands want. Twitter will still be "that" place. Threads (if it doesn't cannibalize ig) will be the alternative only if you want to engage with the same content you see in ig, but text version (dull and false, most of the time).

dbish 3y ago

If you have no follow feed and you’re forced to come back and see low effort posts and pictures from influencers instead every time you check it out, yeah, that’ll do it.

oseph 3y ago
After most of my Threads sessions, my feed is essentially full of "Posts from this user have been muted" after silencing all the force-fed clickbait garbage tossed my way. The interface is clean and light and honestly I like it. But I'd like it even more if I could have a feed showing only the users I follow.
- tornato7 3y ago
  This ruined Facebook years ago for me and continues to make social media unappealing. I used to open Facebook every day, scroll down to see all my friends' new posts, and then close it once it said "all caught up!" Of course, Facebook decided that the possibility of actually being "done" browsing Facebook for the day is a no-go, they want me engaged for 25 hours a day, so they will endlessly throw irrelevant crap at you.
astrange 3y ago
The recommendation feed shows the issue with "filter bubble" theory - if you start seeing posts from people in your outgroup, it doesn't familiarize you with them, it makes you even /more/ annoyed with them. In the case of Threads for me that's a class of influencer that posts nothing but unsolicited love advice or things like "if your friends hurt you they were never really your friends" that are supposed to be 'relatable' but just make it sound like they have BPD.

impulser_ 3y ago

Not surprising. No web app, no following feed, no hashtag for searching. It basically just text version of Instagram. I want to see more of the post from people I follow, not random celebrities and companies. Seems like the leadership doesn't understand what made Twitter popular, it's the 5th most visited website in the world despite having less than a third of active users as the 4th place Instagram.

lern_too_spel 3y ago
And the web page stupidly asks me to log in if I want to see more of a user's posts. I can't take their claims that they will publish posts via ActivityPub seriously.
beams_of_light 3y ago
I think the biggest problem is there’s no anonymity. Most people aren’t willing to share their real opinions under their real name.
mikewarot 3y ago
>No web app Oh... I thought it was just me missing the login box somewhere in the floating galaxy and abstract art in the middle of their page. </snark>
chii 3y ago
> No web app this is the biggest mistake imho. I am not going to download an app, create an account, just to view something. I will not even go test it out if it's not convenient.
- yunohn 3y ago
  > just to view something I can open and read links on my mobile browser without the app?
- anon373839 3y ago
  Same. I have never had a Twitter account or downloaded their app. The day Elon Musk threw up the login wall, I read my last tweet. Reddit is in the same category. If they shut off the public website, they’ll be dead to me as well.

HumblyTossed 3y ago

Two words: Follow Feed.

Rebelgecko 3y ago

Their "red hot" debut was about as good as Google+'s

0xy 3y ago

All the "THIS time Twitter is in trouble!" posters are nowhere to be found. The Google+ of Twitter clones predictably is already floundering. Network effects are a hell of a thing, not that Threads was even a good product. The algorithm SUCKS, the feed is just random garbage instead of relevant content that interests you, or current world events. SELECT * FROM posts ORDER BY RAND() doesn't make for a good social media experience.

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago

Well what did you expect? The premiere of any social media app is going to signal a Gold Rush in terms of account creation. You're going to attract the claim-stakers, their foil the name-squatters, the botters, the sleeper-creators, the early-adopters, the refugees of St. Elsewhere, the megalomaniacs, the API-experimenters, the app-writers. And then all those accounts are going to go dark and bide their time, because account creation was the goal, not engagement or participation.

erulabs 3y ago

I just think the moral story is somewhat humorous. Jumping from twitter to threads is like swapping your Russian AK47 for an Israeli Galil and imagining you’ve made some moral improvement. If that’s the only reason to swap, you can count on most people yawning.

0xFFOOFF 3y ago
Galil is objectively better than an AK47 though.
- erulabs 3y ago
  Of course! But is it enough better?

astrange 3y ago

That's not an actual problem for them. It's been less than a week, and you don't need all your users to visit every day.

111111IIIIIII 3y ago

[dead]

ryzvonusef 3y ago

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1680082007873953794 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1680082007873953794 > We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load. Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else. I maintain my assertion that what might kill twitter is not threads or any other competitor, but simple cashflow problems. Elon is asset-rich but cash-poor, and I don't know how long he can fund his current hobby.