Why Threads Failed: Where the Twitter “Competitor” Went Wrong

Mar 5

When Threads launched, it seemed to be the only thing I would hear about on the news. After a couple months into Elon Musk’s tumultuous reign over Twitter, Meta decided to launch a similar microblogging platform to compete. The result was a couple days of hype and an exponential rate of signups, immediately followed by a strong decline in active users.

A Start with Good Intentions

Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion after a less than stellar series of events, which included him initially wanting to back out of his original offer. The Musk-owned platform, which has since rebranded as X, has seen a strong decline in popularity since his purchase of the app. Much of this is attributed to many of the poor business and controversial decisions he has made, including paid subscriptions for the blue verified checkmark. According to Pew Research, 25% of users expected that they will leave the platform within 12 months back in 2023. This decline presented a gap of opportunity to Meta – the most dominant company in the social media industry – to fill the void made by dissatisfied users with a new product.

Meta’s original plan was to build a microblogging feature on Instagram. But one night, Mark Zuckerberg called Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, with a different plan to build a completely new microblogging app that integrated with Instagram. According to Entrepreneur, “Mosseri found himself speaking softly to avoid waking his sleeping wife as he, Zuckerberg, and a few other Meta executives discussed Twitter-like features they could add to Instagram until Zuckerberg said that he had a different idea: ‘What if we went bigger?’” Rumors about the Twitter competitor soon began to spread within the tech community until the Threads platform launched in July 2023.

A Strong Launch

Threads was not released with much applause, but it quickly became the most trending news. According to the Silicon Republic, “this rapid rise was followed by a plummet in users, as analytics firms claimed the app’s daily active users dropped by more than 80pc less than one month after launch.”

According to Observer, Mark Zuckerberg said in an earnings call that “In general, we haven’t had a lot of success with building standalone apps. We have a lot of work to do to really make Threads to reach its full potential.”

But what caused this drop? Here’s are three reasons the Threads wasn’t as successful as it could have been:

Lack of Different Features

Threads lacked a variety of features when it first launched. At first glance, the UI/UX of the Threads and X feeds are similar. But there were a lot of differences – mainly, users could do more on X than they could on Threads. The Meta competitor did not have a search function and lacked the ability for users to add hashtags.

At the same time, users started complaining about their feed. The algorithm was designed to show posts the users deemed “irrelevant” and not stuff that people actually wanted to see. Even when people followed other users, their feed would be filled with posts from users they did not follow. This failure, combined with a lack of key features, led to a staggering decline in engagement and active users.

Meta has since attempted to fix this. From the get go, Zuckerberg admitted that there was still a long way to go when it came to building out the app. Mosseri said they “have lots more to do and need[s] to be careful not to be too confident,” Since its release, Threads has now expanded to support GIFs, polls, hashtags, and a search feature. Back in October 2023, TechCrunch wrote, “rapid succession to other releases for the new app, which have included support for a web version, a (free) edit button, profile switching, likes, full-text search, a chronological feed, voice posts, and more. Given the rapid adoption, CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested on a call with investors on Wednesday that Threads could be Meta’s next billion-user app.”

But a couple months later, these changes still aren’t enough. Engagement is dying. The app only sees 2.4 million users a day, which is a far cry from the one billion active users that Zuckerberg wants to see.

Lack in Marketing

Although there were rumors about Meta building a “Twitter killer,” the company did not market the app prior to its launch. People started learning about the app the second it became available. This led to signups on the app being more about “hopping on the bandwagon” than actually being interested in the microblogging platform.

According to Entrepreneur, “Threads has had a pretty underwhelming product launch from a marketing standpoint. Outside of the generic press release by Meta, there’s not been much marketing or advertising done to promote the launch of the new social media platform.”

Limited Customer Base

One of the amazing things about social media platforms is that they connect users from all over the world with each other. Threads missed this concept – the app is only available to people in the United States. Unlike Meta’s other platforms which have a global reach, Threads only has American users, limiting its reach and appeal. According to The Drum, “Threads is not yet available in the EU. Once that gap is addressed, we could, potentially, see a resurgence in popularity.”