Is Musk afraid? More than 2 million people registered! The Twitter assassin has arrived, two people in two hours | platform | assassin
Recently, tech giants Zuckerberg and Musk have gone from online booking to a platform battle.
On July 6th local time, Facebook's parent company Meta launched its long awaited new application Threads. Due to its extremely similar features and pages to Twitter, this application is also seen as posing the "biggest threat" to Twitter to date.
After the launch of the new image application, Meta CEO Zuckerberg stated on Threads that Threads had only been online for two hours and had over 2 million users registered.
Just a few days ago, Twitter CEO Elon Musk implemented new restrictions on reading on Twitter, which caused dissatisfaction among users and sparked a new round of Twitter turmoil. Many users began to search for alternative platforms to replace Twitter.
The Twitter assassin is here
According to the Apple Store, Threads is a text-based conversation app that users see as a replacement for Twitter. Like Twitter, this application allows users to share text, images, and videos on the platform, and allows other users to like, reply, share, and more. Supports over thirty languages and is suitable for ages 12 and above.
The Instagram team acquired Threads as early as 2012. Compared to Twitter, the biggest advantage of Threads is its high integration with Instagram. That is to say, Threads users can log in with their Instagram account. By leveraging the advantages of Instagram, users can directly develop their existing social circle based on Instagram.
Moreover, in response to Twitter's restrictions on user views, Threads will provide a free service without restricting browsing. At the same time, Threads supports AI technology and recommends topics or characters that users are interested in based on big data analysis. There is also an intelligent translation function available, which allows users from different countries and regions to chat freely.
It is reported that Meta had originally planned to launch Threads at the end of July, but due to large-scale dissatisfaction among Twitter users due to traffic restrictions recently, Meta decided to release this new application in advance.
Zuckerberg once expressed his desire to create a "more rational Twitter". Meta has high expectations for it internally and expects it to attract tens of millions of users in just a few months. Meta is actively promoting Threads to public figures, promoting its excellent operational management, and touting it as an ideal alternative to the current "chaotic" Twitter.
Threads were also the trigger for Musk's previous engagement with Zuckerberg.
Industry insiders say that this application may intensify competition between the two billionaires - Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. The scale, financial resources, and existing user base of Threads are likely to threaten Twitter's position as a mainstream social media platform.
According to foreign media reports, Meta's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox stated at a company wide meeting in June that Threads is "our response to Twitter.". He stated that he has been hearing about the desire of creators and public figures to have a "normal" social platform - which is undoubtedly a commentary on Musk's actions after acquiring Twitter.
Twitter launches new regulations on current restrictions
Last Friday, Twitter just fell into a user crisis.
Previously, Twitter users could access Twitter without logging in. However, last Friday, thousands of users found themselves unable to read platform content while using Twitter's visitor mode and were prompted to log in to their accounts.
On July 1st, Twitter urgently responded to this issue, emphasizing the need to log in to see the content and calling it a "temporary emergency measure" that had to be taken.
Subsequently, Musk explained that this was to combat AI companies that excessively crawl data and prevent them from reducing Twitter's service quality to ordinary users. But he did not specify how long this temporary measure would last. He also stated that this move is to encourage users to stay away from their phones and spend more time with their families.
The rule modification on image Twitter did not notify users in advance, causing many users to protest. A netizen said: Musk killed Twitter. "Goodbye, Twitter" has also made it to the domestic hot search list in the United States. Most users expressed frustration with the restrictive measures and said it was time to leave Twitter and look for new alternatives.
Subsequently, in order to stabilize users, Musk announced further measures to limit their daily reading: verified users can read 6000 posts per day, unverified users can read 600 posts per day, and new unverified accounts can read 300 posts per day.
However, just a few hours later, Musk made adjustments to the user's reading volume. According to Musk's latest policy, Twitter has verified that users can view 10000 tweets per day, with 1000 unverified old users and 500 unverified new users browsing per day.
Some netizens also believe that Musk's move is not to prevent AI from crawling information, but to encourage more users to pay for Blue Label.
According to the latest news from foreign media, Twitter's Tweet Deck client will also release a new version next month, and this new version of the client will only be open to users who have purchased Twitter's Blue Label service.
The overt and covert struggles of technology giants
The previous "online shelving" looked like a joke, but the real cause was the war between these two tech giants, where there was no smoke or smoke.
Faced with direct competition from Meta, which has powerful social network user resources, Musk had to be prepared. Data shows that in 2022, Meta's Facebook had over 2.9 billion monthly active users, ranking first in the world. Another product, Instagram, had over 1.4 billion monthly active users. Compared to that, Twitter has only 436 million monthly active users.
After experiencing a major layoff at the end of 2022, Twitter's operations have been even worse. At the end of 2022, Musk posted a public opinion poll on Twitter, with 57.5% of respondents calling for him to stop leading the company. In March of this year, Musk revealed to the outside world that although Twitter's daily user base has slightly increased since the beginning of 2022, due to a "massive decline" in advertising, Twitter's revenue has decreased by 50% since October last year.
In order to salvage the downturn, on May 11th, Musk announced that he would step down as CEO of Twitter and be succeeded by executive Jakarino from NBC Global, a large media group in the United States. And Musk himself will serve as the company's executive chairman and chief product officer, overseeing product, software, and system management.
Musk, who strives to maintain Twitter's operations, has become a direct competitor to Zuckerberg, who is seeking new directions for the company in many fields.
On July 3rd, Musk commented on Threads on Twitter, saying, "Thank goodness, their operations are so rational."
At the same time, Twitter is also trying to encroach on Meta's field. In May of this year, Twitter added encrypted information function and stated that it will launch call function in the future. The expansion of these features will directly compete with Meta's Facebook and WhatsApp on Twitter.
