Meta's Threads: Is this a joke or an opportunity?
So Meta's "Threads" is aiming to replace Twitter and everyone is going nuts.
@genemachine decried its privacy policy in Gene's Weekly. And he's right — it's an affront to privacy-minded people everywhere, giving Meta access to just about everything you (digitally) own: search history, browsing history, sensitive info, financial info, you name it.
Not to mention that you can't delete your Threads profile without deleting your entire Instagram account. Shady move.
And then there's good old Elon, who is threatening to sue Meta for stealing trade secrets.
All that said, they exceeded 30 million downloads in under 24 hours, so they're doing something right. And some people seem to kinda like it.
So what's the deal... Does this change anything for indie hackers? Will you try to build your brand there? Would you ever consider migrating away from Twitter?
I want to hear your thoughts, rants, and crackpot theories!
I don't think the average person cares about giving up their info. And I can't say they're dumb to make that decision:
Option A) Social media has provided countless hours of entertainment for people for two decades now. And it's a useful communication tool with friends, family, and the wider world. And people like targeted ads better than random ads. And it's free.
Option B) Zealously protecting one's data online tends to ostracize people and cut them off from the latest technology. And it's a ton of work, year after year, which can easily be erased by one mistake. And it's of dubious benefit, which most people struggle to explain in specific, concise terms.
Consumers en masse are not going to start trading A for B. They're going to keep clicking "yes" to Meta's requests for personal data, no matter how many nerds blog about it and say they shouldn't.
While the average person probably does not care, regulators do. Threads has not launched in the EU yet because Meta does not seem to be confident that they can get away with a privacy sinkhole.
Even if I wanted to join, I can’t because their app is not available in the App Store in the Netherlands.
It feels like it's only hitting the US and Canada and a few other countries it seems.
There's already a pretty large indie hacker community over there actually! In regards to privacy, all social medias are already shady; Threads is just more upfront about it.
The privacy issue is enough for me to steer clear. Also, I generally try to avoid just about everything Meta does anyway 😅
It's definitely going to be difficult for most folks to use multiple apps (Twitter, Mastodon, BlueSky, and Threads?)
I think Threads will probably win because you instantly get a social graph (followers/following). I haven't had to hunt as hard to find folks there. "Better distribution" almost always wins!
I was initially really impressed with Bluesky, but it's attracted a community that's a little too weird and esoteric for me.
I actually really love the community over at Mastodon (it feels the most like "early Twitter" to me), but it's just too complicated for most folks.
What exactly did you notice about the community of Bluesky, curious because haven't tried it out yet but looks interesting
I'm not convinced about the readymade social graph. The type of people I have on insta are very different than the ones I want on Twitter (not that I really use either).
I'm also concerned about Meta moving into ActivityPub. Smells like Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.
It might be another Clubhouse overnight flop but I reckon with how little love there is for Twitter at the moment, Threads is definitely worth having a presence on.
Zuck has said he won't look at monetization until they hit 1b users and this really just an MVP of where they're heading. My thinking is if you're building a brand right now, it's worth setting up an account and starting to build a following (as if it does take off, this will only be harder to do in the future).
I'd argue it's way different than ClubHouse as CH was an inherently flawed model (live, unscheduled group calls that often devolved into shameless promotion or worse). Threads is basically a (better?) Twitter clone which is a pretty proven model in comparison to CH.
If he doesn't monetize till 1bn that would be indeed wild
They're going to hit 1bn within weeks man... this thing is growing so fast.
Do I plan to build brands related to some of my projects on Threads - perhaps. For personal account - no way. For that purpose I plan to use Mastodon.
Too many products try to build something like twitter. I think it is very difficult to make a similar platform from zero to one today. Do you remember clubhouse?
Come check out Qwurty as an alternative. We have a growing community of friendly users over here. 🥳
Qwurty.
Brands will move to whatever platform the user masses are using, privacy doesn't put them off. So this also means that social presence of entrepreneurs, products and content creators will need to adopt the new platform accordingly.
The average creator though, starts to get overwhelmed after managing the 3rd or 4th social media service, so it means that one of the existing platforms is going to suffer and be dropped by most creators. I think it will be Facebook, or perhaps Twitter (for those who are put off by Elon).
I'm thoroughly unconvinced it's an "innovative product" when it seems like the main draw for users is that "it's not Twitter and I want to stick it to Elon". So we'll see.
It won't replace anything. Twitter is here to stay and Elon Musk is a great entrepreneur. I fully support him.
Zuck likes to steal ideas. First, he stole FB idea from Wicklevoss twins, then he stole from Instagram (bought it later), then from SnapChat, then from Tiktok. He steals stuff with ferocity of a criminal, but doesn't get caught because these are white collar crimes, hard to detect and prove.
But best of luck to him! Hopefully, one day he will come up with something truly original.
To be fair Elon bought Tesla and claimed he founded it, said he founded PayPal yet never worked there (he worked at Confinity and was fired as CEO before PayPal was a company), said he invented the Hyperloop yet it's a 100yo idea.
Let's be honest, all billionaires cheat and steal to get where they are, it goes with the territory.
Good point! Thanks for sharing.
I have a strong suspicion that Threads is the Next Big Thing ™️, so we should get on it and start building an audience while it's still in the land rush phase.
That said, I'm enjoying the chaos of early Threads and am not missing the threads of "learnings" one bit. Don't ruin it for me.
Currently, I don't have a business, but I am planning on creating one. I am not active on any social media platform, but I will have to use them in the future.
Does anyone know if there is a news site which "watches" news about major social media platforms? Plus, it would be useful if it would give some kind of feature analysis about them. As I read in books: if you want to grow your business on a social media platform, then you must deeply understand how it works and what offerings it has. For example, if I haven't used Instagram in years I don't know how and what can I do to grow my profile.
Feedly (https://feedly.com) would do that for you. They have been trying out an AI analysis feature to help gather intel on where any market you decide to track is moving, tailored to your chosen interests. I tried it for a bit but realised it's a bit too much for me. It might work for you though.
Hi! Thanks for the recommendation. It seems to be great for new platform related news, I might use it. But that only does half of the work what I want to get. I might create a post about it.
In today's digital environment, privacy is a major worry. I suppose nobody will object to that.