In a bold move to rival Twitter (now X), Meta launched Threads, however, the promising start has quickly fizzled out, with Threads witnessing a worrying decline in traffic and showing no apparent signs of a turnaround due to not having a unique identity on social media.
Bleak picture on social media
A recent report, published on Tuesday, paints a bleak picture for the once-hyped platform, predicting that Threads will close in 2023 with just 23.7 million users in the United States.
This figure stands at less than half of the 56.1 million anticipated for Twitter/X and a mere 17.5% of Instagram’s staggering 135.2 million user base.
Threads’ current trajectory places it second-to-last among major social media platforms, edging out only Tumblr, which boasts 20.4 million users.
In stark contrast, Facebook continues to reign supreme as the most popular social network, with a staggering 177.9 million users in the United States, followed closely by Instagram and TikTok, with 102.3 million users.
Even as Threads’ user base is projected to grow to 33.9 million by 2025, accounting for 23.3% of Instagram’s total users, experts at Insider anticipate that the platform’s cellar-dwelling ranking will persist.
Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider, underscores the challenges facing Threads, stating, “The path to 1 billion Threads users is longer than Meta would like. The link to Instagram can only take Threads so far, and the clock is ticking for the network effect to take hold.”
Curiously, the report omits two other Twitter alternatives, Mastodon and Bluesky.
Despite having smaller user bases than Threads, these platforms offer a unique proposition to users weary of being subject to the whims of billionaire platform owners: decentralized protocols that empower individuals to take their online presence elsewhere.
Meta has hinted at Threads adopting Mastodon’s ActivityPub protocol in the future, but for now, Threads resembles a version of Twitter without the occasional controversial posts from high-profile figures.
No unique identity?
Enberg emphasizes Threads’ need to define its identity quickly, stating, “For Threads to carve a lasting niche in the social media landscape, it needs to determine its unique identity as it matures. It must also do so promptly, as Meta has a history of discontinuing new apps or integrating them into existing services.”
The clock is ticking for Threads, and its future in the competitive social media sphere hangs in the balance.
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