Facebook has tried to compete with Twitter in numerous ways over the years, including copying signature Twitter features such as hashtags and trending topics. But now Facebook’s parent company is taking perhaps its biggest swipe at Twitter yet.
The amount of sign ups their getting is insane they might actually kill off Twitter.
It sounds like a lot until you realize that Threads is basically just a DLC pack for Instagram, which already has one of the world’s largest user bases as it is - something like ~2.5b users, I believe.
I find it hard to consider any user count on Threads to be “growth”, when the accounts have already existed since before Threads launched. It’s like if a bakery sold cakes to 500 customers a day, and then decides to start selling pies, as well. If the same 500 cake customers come back and buy pies, the restaurant didn’t gain any new customers; it’s just the same customer base enjoying a different product being offered now. Maybe this is just me being pedantic, maybe this is just me reaching for a reason to downplay Meta. I dunno.
This is exactly my feeling as well. I like the design of it, but it doesn’t feel like it’s own thing. It feels like alternative content from the people I already follow on Instagram. It’s like an echo chamber in an echo chamber.
I’ll be curious to see if they ever decide to open it up to non-Insta users. I turn to Microblogging like Mastodon/Twitter for a completely different social media experience, not a different side of the same coin.
Why do they move from one evil corporation to another, instead of moving to alternatives like Mastodon?
Because Mastodon is the Linux of social media…and we all know how popular that OS is on the desktop. Techie people have a habit of putting themselves in a bubble and think everything is as easy to use for a normal person as it is for them.
I’ve stopped explaining it to my friends and family because they literally just give me blank stares when I even say the word “federated”. If they want to come over, they can figure it out on their own just like I did. You can’t beat it into them.
At some point, honestly, it’s just inertia. My sister is smart enough to figure out Mastodon, she calls instances confusing because she just doesn’t WANT to move. She’s still on Facebook, saying she’s just not into Twitter or Reddit like stuff, but she’ll be on Threads I bet.
I don’t think we need to be the biggest thing in the world, though, as long as we have ENOUGH people in the Fediverse to be active.
It’s sad people flee one shitty dystopia for another.
and dont even know it
I know I’m practically begging for downvotes here, but it is also possible that some people are perfectly aware of the tradeoffs, pros, and cons of social media, and have decided that the positives outweigh the negatives. That you have different priorities doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone else is stupid or ignorant.
It’s ironic how the Fediverse on the one hand celebrates the fact that anyone can join and instances can all do their own things and hold their own views, and then it goes “but not like that” in this case.
It’s ironic how the Fediverse on the one hand celebrates the fact that anyone can join and instances can all do their own things and hold their own views
Yes, all in contrast to corporate enshittification and algorithmic spyware.
and then it goes “but not like that” in this case.
Yes, because its corporate social media waiting for enshittification with algorithmic spyware.
I have just read elsewhere that they’re using the same account as Instagram uses. So if you have an Instagram account, and have done nothing with Threads at all, they’re likely still counting you as a Threads user.
tl;dr: They’re being misleading.
I’m pretty sure there are far more than 10 million people with Instagram accounts. There’s probably a lot more than that in the US alone.
Wasn’t there a statement recently that meta wasn’t doing threads in some regions? Specifically the EU?
Yes, but it’s not the case that all but 10 million of Instagram’s users are from the EU…
Do we know if it’s only EU that is excluded from Threads?
In the US alone, Instagram has over 150 million users. Even if the only country accessing it was the US, the number should be much higher than 10 mill, were they automatically adding the users.
https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/instagram-users-by-country
