Meta-owned Instagram’s Threads could add $8 billion in annual revenue to the company by 2025. According to a Bloomberg report, analyst projections indicate the additional revenue from Threads is just a fraction of the estimated $156 billion Meta is expected to earn in 2025, it is worth noting that the $8 billion figure surpasses the $ 5.1 billion in sales Twitter generated during its first year as a public company.
On July 10, 2023, Threads crossed 100 million users making it the fastest-growing consumer product across the world. OpenAI’s popular chatbot ChatGPT is estimated to have reached 100 million users in two months, while short video app TikTok took about nine months and Instagram itself took about two and a half years to reach the mark.
Elon Musk is threatening to sue Facebook’s parent company, Meta. According to Twitter, Meta used trade secrets and other intellectual property to build Threads.
However, there is more to Threads. Though launched as a rival to stand up to Twitter, there are 10 twitter features that Meta’s Threads still does not possess. Compared to Meta’s other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Threads does not have the support of a hashtag. Twitter can be accessed not just via phone but also via web. This provision is not available for Threads. On the microblogging platform, premium users can edit tweets. This feature too is missing in Threads where one has to either delete or create a new post.
Meta’s Threads does not permit the users to directly message, and for further privacy has enabled end-to-end encryption. Alt text or alternative text is a description of an image or a video. In the case of Threads, it uses computer generated alternative text.
Unlike Twitter, Threads does not have a trending topic section. As per a media report, Instagram’s chief executive officer Adam Mosseri had mentioned to The Verge that Threads is not for “Hard News”. Meta’s mogul Mark Zuckerberg went on to say that Threads will feature ads when they get one billion users.
Threads also has no ‘For You’ or ‘Following’ feed. There is only a single feed for Threads which carries trending posts and posts from followers. Plus, Threads also has a randomly generated feed which is not in chronological order.
Threads account cannot be created without logging into Instagram. If you want to delete Threads, your Instagram account too gets deleted. However, the account can be deactivated. As per a media report, the data still exists on Meta’s servers and remains tied to your IG account.