INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
WASHINGTON: Meta's Mark Zuckerberg delivered a blow to Elon Musk on Wednesday night, as the tech billionaires' rivalry went live with the
launch of Instagram's much-anticipated Threads platform, a clone of Twitter."Let's do this
Welcome to Threads," Zuckerberg posted on the app, along with a fire emoji.Analysts said investors were salivating over the possibility that
Threads' ties to Instagram might give it a built-in user base and advertising apparatus
That could siphon ad dollars from Twitter, whose new CEO is trying to revive the microblogging company's struggling business.While Threads
launched as a standalone app, users could log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same accounts, potentially making it an
easy addition to existing habits for Instagram's more than 2 billion monthly active users."Investors can't help but be a little excited
about the prospect that Meta really has a 'Twitter-Killer'," said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment platform firm AJ
Bell.Meta stock closed up 3% on Wednesday ahead of the launch, outpacing gains by competitor tech companies as the broader market edged
down.Threads' arrival comes after Zuckerberg and Musk have traded barbs for months and even threatened to fight each other in a real-life
mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas.The timing is opportune for Meta to land a blow, as months of Musk's chaotic decision-making has
roiled Twitter.Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, but its value has since plummeted as it faced an exodus of advertisers amid
deep staffing cuts and content moderation controversies.While Meta is likely to focus first on growing users before incorporating
advertising on Threads, big brands "will happily (invest) a good amount of ad spend on the platform" to seek refuge in its relative brand
safety and capitalize on early buzz, said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant who has worked with Meta, Google and Pinterest."We're here
to foster a positive and creative space for you to express your ideas
This time, it's all about conversation," said a post by the official Threads account.Brands like Billboard, HBO and Variety had accounts set
up within minutes of launch, as did celebrities like Shakira and other well-known personalities such as former Meta Chief Operating Officer
The app did not appear to show any ads, according to a Reuters review.To build up Threads, Meta has been making overtures to social media
influencers to attract them to the new app and encouraging them to post at least twice a day, said Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer marketing
company Influential.Some thanked the company for early access in their initial posts.The app also benefits from the failure of other
would-be Twitter competitors to take advantage of the service's stumbles
While a number of new and burgeoning competitors such as Mastodon, Post, Truth Social and T2 have tried to lure Twitter users away, all
remain relatively small so far.Bluesky, a new service backed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, launched its invite-only beta in February and
instantly created a buzz on Twitter, with users clamoring to get access codes
Its website says it has 50,000 users
Dorsey has also backed another platform called Nostr.But history is working against Meta
It has suffered multiple failures launching standalone copycat apps in the past, most notably its Lasso app aimed at competing with short
video rival TikTok.The company later incorporated a short video tool directly into Instagram and more recently wound down its unit tasked
with designing experimental apps as part of a cost-cutting drive.Another potential strike against Threads is that the news-oriented culture
on Twitter is different from that on Instagram, a more visual platform, said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence."The
main use cases for Twitter still remain keeping up with news and world events," said Enberg
"I find it hard to imagine that the most avid loyal Twitter users who go to Twitter for that type of culture will defect and go immediately
to Threads."Still, she said, Meta only needs to convince a quarter of Instagram's users to join Threads in order to rival Twitter's size
"The reality is that Meta doesn't need to convert Twitter power users into Threads users."
