Can Instagram 'Threads app' beat Twitter? 🧵
It reached 10 million users in 7 hours of launch.
Welcome to the 163rd edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 95,300+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more
2022 : Elon musk bought Twitter 💰
2023 : Twitter got to 368 million users ✨
Can Instagram's 'Threads app' beat Twitter? ⬇️
Quick context 🗓
In 2019, Meta (formerly the facebook) launched "Threads" app to compete with Snapchat. Like on Snapchat, "Threads" allowed users to message close friends disappearing photos / videos. That app has died.
Fast forward to yesterday ⚡️
Instagram yesterday launched a new "Threads" app. Users can post up to 500 characters long "threads" & have links, photos/videos. Think of it as a Twitter copycat.
Social networks are extremely hard to build 🥺
Millions have tried building the next Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram & almost everyone has failed or haven't been able to scale it to call it a business.
Why Instagram wants a piece of "threads"? 🤔
Instagram ceiling is definitely hit, plus it feels like Elon is doing too many experiments to make Twitter users unhappy - Instagram is watching.
Can 'Threads app' beat Twitter though? ⬇️
I took it for a spin this morning.
1/ Love the onboarding ♥️
The app syncs with instagram & I filled no signup forms to get access. All I had to do was click on "Import" from Instagram and it worked like magic.
2/ The cold start is great 🕹
Every social network needs critical mass of users. The 0 to 1 journey is a big problem. The "import your instagram followers" feature solves the cold start problem.
3/ Privacy terms are upfront 🔒
After the whole fiasco at Meta, they have learned the lesson. Privacy settings are specific for Threads Vs Instagram - user can keep a private IG profile & public "threads" account.
4/ Ditto Twitter UI copied 🥷🏻
It feels almost like using Twitter, so there is no behaviour change. This is where "no friction" design is helping. Users don't need to be educated.
5/ Threads reached 10 mil users 🤯
But, can it really go beyond and make history? or just become another Clubhouse that got so much traction and then fizzled out quickly.
So what's next for Threads Vs Twitter? 🐥
Social networks that don't have extremely high user base die a very fast death. Threads need to go from early adopter "Janta" to IG user base fast. Mission 100 million is ON.
Solve for the "right" growth 📈
Every IG user coming onto the threads app need to find their friends/connections. For now IG users who also use Twitter should only be the core focus.
Get textual content created 📝
Cross posting from IG isn't enough. The app needs to push creators to build "threads" specific textual content.
Ensure creators see the upside 🏔
Threads will need to bring in extremely lucrative monetisation tools for creators - do what Twitter did in the last 1 year in under few weeks.
Threads is nailing it's Go To Market ❤️
Do you struggle with nailing GTMs & more structure around taking product/features to the market? We go down the rabbit hole to designing solid GTM strategies for any freaking product inside the GrowthX experience.
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I’m very surprised that Meta hasn’t PUSHED Threads down the throat of Instagram users yet (presumably because the product is not fully complete), and primarily relied on hype. I’m sure there’ll be lots to learn from how Meta chooses to take more advantage of it’s existing user base.