• Threads could be here to stay, but it may be too soon to tell

Threads – the Twitter competitor courtesy of Meta – is the latest buzz on social media, with the app taking less than two hours to reach its first million users. 

There’s definitely a number of reasons behind this meteoric rise of Threads, with possibly the biggest one being the collective hatred for Twitter that has been growing in recent months. However, Threads being a good social media app may not be anyone’s primary reason for joining the app, not right now at least.

What Threads offers at the moment is a stripped-down and cleaner version of Twitter. It has a minimalistic interface where users get to see algorithmic posts on their feed based on what Threads feels you might find most interesting. According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it is what Twitter was supposed to be, saying on Twitter that Twitter as a platform “had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it”.

For users, some of the benefits of Threads are that it has no ads (Zuckerberg is surely twirling his imaginary moustache at this, since ads are an inevitability), has a relatively clean interface, no viewing limit, and has fewer bots owing to it being a brand new platform. 

However, let’s not get too excited about the minimalist and ‘simple’ nature of everything just yet, because you can expect more features to appear on Threads soon, which could mean both the good ones and the bad ones. Instagram Head Adam Mosseri has not let us forget this fact as he has repeatedly mentioned the “missing features” and their focus on bringing in a following feed, the edit button, and a post search. 

Considering that despite its success, Threads is essentially an infant and still very new, it is too soon to say anything for sure, but it is definitely very interesting to see where Threads can go, especially as a potential social media platform.  

The industry perspective 

MullenLowe Sri Lanka Digital Manager Janidu Siriwardena shared his thoughts on Threads from a professional perspective, opining that Threads was a refreshing addition to Meta’s collection of social platforms and was perfectly timed to cater to the global public’s dissatisfaction with Twitter in the wake of Elon Musk taking over and making unpopular changes to the platform. 

“The fact that Threads hit 100 million users in five days kind of establishes the need for such a platform. When we consider the average user of Threads at the moment, it gives the perfect throwback to when social media started – when organic reach and engagement was still a thing and where user content was more prevalent over brand content,” he said. 

He also noted: “It’s still very early days on Threads and it won’t take long until Meta starts monetising the platform, so everyone on the platform should make use of the limited time where everything is not dictated by the algorithm.” 

With regard to its potential, he said: “It hits a sweet spot in between Facebook and Instagram where users can be more candid and create room for conversation. However, it has a long way to go to become a fully-fledged social platform.”

He also made reference to its limited features: “It’s basically positioned as a Twitter killer and pretty much mimics its offerings. While Threads is still limited in terms of functionalities, that will change soon. When we compare it with platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and even TikTok, Threads is more geared towards creating conversations as opposed to pushing very visual content, but of course it’s very early to judge how things will pan out. The next couple of months will be an interesting time on the platform.”

IdeaHell and Derana Macroentertainment (Pvt) Ltd. General Manager Janeeth Rodrigo also shared his thoughts on Threads and its place in the social media landscape: “Clearly, it has exploded. Its growth is unlike what any other social media platform has seen in the past decade, largely due to the fact that they have made it really easy to transition between Instagram and Threads. They have essentially created a FOMO effect; you may have observed that your Threads number is essentially the number assigned when you joined the platform and it greatly rewards those who join before others.” 

Rodrigo also noted its specific impact on the Sri Lankan user base: “Since the main competitor of Threads is Twitter, I see this platform having a huge impact in Sri Lanka, mainly because Twitter was anyway not very popular here. Only about 300,000 active accounts existed in terms of Twitter, mostly in the Western Province and within the Colombo District. Threads will certainly threaten this,” he said. 

As for the longevity of the platform, he posited that this would be dependant on how updates were rolled out: “It is very glitchy at present; there are issues and a lot of concerns about privacy which need to be overcome for the platform to be available in many countries in Europe,” he said, adding however that he personally believed that it was a platform to look out for, “be it in digital marketing, communications, politics, civic matters, and whatever else”. 

Sharing similar sentiments to Siriwardena, Rodrigo also observed that Threads was an “odd platform for now,” noting how it was a hybrid between Twitter and Instagram, since it was not as conversation-driven as Twitter and not as focused on video/photo-driven content as Instagram. 

He also noted that while it was a little too soon to tell, the platform was well over the early adopter stage: “We are way past the early adopter stage, which is shocking for something that was only launched a few weeks ago. Usually the early adopter stage lasts for about at least a month or two.” 

Rodrigo highlighted that in terms of usage, Facebook had declined for the first time in Sri Lanka in 2023. In terms of platforms in general, YouTube is number one in terms of usage (with the caveat that it is essentially a video sharing platform and not a social media platform), Facebook second, and Instagram third (Tiktok would have joined this rank, although there is a lack of accurate statistics), while Twitter is at the very bottom. Rodrigo opined that Threads would likely climb past Twitter on this list in terms of usage in Sri Lanka. 

“In terms of digital advocacy, my biggest concern is Facebook, Instagram, and Threads being controlled by one company. All our data being with one company alone and the monopoly it has is a bit alarming. Ideally, I would have liked to have it a bit more spread out instead of one organisation having a monopoly, but c’est la vie. That is what things have come to,” he said. 

User experience

Speaking to Brunch, some Threads users shared that they were just figuring things out at present. “It feels strange posting on Threads, but I felt that I have to get on it now, because otherwise I will end up never figuring it out. Compared to many others, however, I took my sweet time to join,” said Wathmee Kahadugoda, a recent LLB graduate from Peradeniya University, who shared that she had initially been a sceptic, having taken her time to join the platform. 

“The only reason I was on Twitter was to keep up with the news and to get updates on current affairs; I don’t know if Threads will serve this purpose. I am sort of a lurker on Twitter; I don’t engage, I just observe. I don’t know if Threads can really provide anything for people like that just yet,” she added.

Similarly, Harshana Gunasinghe, a student at the Kelaniya University, shared that he too had joined Threads because everybody else was doing it: “Honestly, I was not even that big of a Twitter user. I always felt like I missed the ball on that one, like I was too late to get into Twitter, so when Threads came along, I thought maybe this was my chance to experience a similar platform from the beginning,” he said. 

“Perhaps this will be the platform that Sri Lankans get behind? A lot of my university friends love Twitter, but they keep deleting and re-opening their profiles because of all of the intense discourse that happens on there. It can get pretty intense there, sometimes even toxic. Since Instagram is more of a lifestyle-focused app, maybe the discourse has a chance not to sour, at least not as badly as it does on Twitter.”