Launch of social media app Threads a ‘nightmare scenario’ for Twitter owner Elon Musk, former Facebook exec says
The launch of Meta-owned social media app Threads could prove disastrous for Twitter owner Elon Musk as people sign up to the new platform.
The launch of the new social media platform Threads is “one of the nightmare scenarios” for Twitter owner Elon Musk and poses a real threat to his troubled-plagued platform, warns Stephen Scheeler, the former Facebook Australia and New Zealand chief executive officer.
Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms who owns Facebook, debuted Threads on Thursday and more than 70 million people signed up in the first two days. Mr Scheeler, who led Facebook’s ANZ operations for four years until 2017, said there remained a “big gap in Facebook’s portfolio” and with Twitter suffering problems since Musk purchased it last year, including accusations of allowing hate speech, advertisers fleeing the platform and the billionaire sacking 21,000 people, Zuckerberg saw the opportunity to start Threads.
“This is probably one of the nightmare scenarios for Twitter, Facebook doing this,” Mr Scheeler told The Australian.
“The moment has finally arrived, Facebook has launched Threads and it’s formidable.
“Musk has got a lot of challenges ahead of him and here’s a new one, it’s a big shake up in the world of social media.”
Threads has launched in more than 100 countries including Australia, the US, Britain, Canada, Japan and India and is yet to run any advertising on the site.
“At this time there are no ads or monetisation features on Threads,” a Meta spokeswoman said.
“Our priority is to build consumer value first and foremost, which allows us to explore how to build business value in a way that doesn’t compromise the consumer experience”.
Meta is the owner of other social media apps including Instagram and WhatsApp. For users to open a new Threads account all they need is an existing Instagram account.
While Twitter users were recently required to start paying to verify their accounts, Threads is taking a different approach.
“Given Threads is connected to Instagram, any paid Meta verified subscribers will automatically have their verification status carried over,” a Meta spokeswoman said.
Mr Scheeler, who is based in Sydney and runs artificial intelligence company Omniscient, said Threads had three advantages in the battle with Twitter.
Firstly it was launched off the back of the existing platform Instagram with more than 1 billion users.
Secondly, he said Facebook was “very good at social media, that’s all Mark Zuckerberg does” and he had immense experience and expertise in social media.
Thirdly, he said Facebook had much better technology and tools available to users and it was an essential advertising medium for advertisers.
“There’s a moment of instability at Twitter where advertisers and users are already nervous about the platform and this just gives them another option to go somewhere else,” Mr Scheeler said.
The University of Sydney’s Professor Terry Flew, an expert in digital communications, said Twitter faced a real threat from Threads as people abandoned the platform.
“A very large number of those people still on Twitter are massively disaffected with the product and the management and what they see as the mismanagement of it,” he said.
“At the same time the sort of service that Twitter provides, a 24-hour real-time public messaging service, there is a demand for it.
“If it comes to pass that people or organisations that have large follower bases move from Twitter to Threads then there’s going to be real trouble with Twitter.”
Prof Flew said Meta had “brand recognition” which was enticing for advertisers.
Image Matrix Tech executive editor Djuro Sen said the arrival of Threads posed a real danger for Musk and Twitter.
“It’s a huge threat to Twitter because Musk is trying to monetise Twitter and he’s got several different irons in the fire but a lot of us aren’t taking up the paid version of Twitter because we don’t see the value in it,” he said.
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