The anti-terror summary of the new social network for those on the building.
imagens: midjourney | internet
Brief:
The main features of Threads and its applications in our work;
The risks of data collection and competition with Twitter;
How it can be helpful to those who are on the Web3.
If you are not under the regime of the Taliban or Xi Jinping, you may have heard of Threads. Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri - CEO of Instagram - launched the new network last week in direct competition with Twitter.
What is it up to?
Is it good for people who are on the Web3 build?
I got to know and I'll tell you here what I found.
60 times faster than Chat GPT
It's undeniable, the launch of Threads was a success. The platform reached 100 million users in 4 days. 60 times faster than the previous digital phenomenon, GPT chat.
A high number, but it's only 5% of Instagram. It's not an exaggeration to think that Threads could surpass the size of Twitter - 350 million users - by the end of July.
But we are unsure if the platform is good or if it's worth investing in this Web3 channel. Besides the fear of a zombie apocalypse: "Will Twitter die?" 😱
The truth is, nobody knows what the future will look like. We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, there are cool things to keep an eye on.
How does Threads work?
With a cleaner design and that Instagram feel in the iconography, the interface and usability dynamics are like a turbocharged Twitter. Here, posts can have up to 500 characters - compared to Twitter's 240 - and videos can be up to 5 minutes long, whereas Twitter limits them to 2 minutes.
There are still many essential features missing for such a platform like GIFs, basic image editing, and even support for hashtags and DM. It really seems like the launch was rushed, taking advantage of the technical issues that Twitter is currently facing.
According to the platform's CEO, a feed only with posts from people the user follows, a content search field, and a button to edit published content will be live later this week.
Algorithm TikTok
The algorithm, on the other hand, has changed a lot. Instead of prioritizing accounts with many followers, the machine chooses the posts in your feed based on the theme and impact of the content. Therefore, just like on TikTok, a complete unknown can have their post go viral in minutes - or not. This is good for small and beginner profiles, but it diminishes the power of big influencers.
However, we still haven't noticed this. The algorithm hasn't had enough time to learn, and the on-screen experience at the moment is chaotic. Additionally, with content chosen based on our interests, we will see many posts from people we don't follow.
Supervised Content
Freedom in Threads has its limits, just like in your parent's house.
On Twitter, freedom has been taken to very strange terms, where profiles that support the wave of school massacres in Brazil do not violate the platform's rules and are protected by freedom of speech. Shocking, but some defend it.
Threads, on the other hand, invests in the "brand-friendly" commercial strategy: An ideal environment for brands to advertise their products. The content is moderated and, according to its CEO, the platform will not promote political content or news:
"From a platform perspective, any incremental engagement these materials might bring is not worth the scrutiny, negativity, or integrity risks that come along with that content."
Adam Mosseri emphasizes that content such as sports, beauty, and fashion are already enough to create a vibrant platform without the need for politics or news.
"The goal is not to replace Twitter. The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) who are interested in a less toxic place for conversations, but not all of Twitter."
Source: InfoMoney Portal
Connection with Lens, Mastodon, and others
A very interesting concept that has been announced is the platform's entry into the Fediverse - image below. In simple terms, the Fediverse is the connection between different platforms that allows users from one social network to interact with users from another network on their own local account.
We could potentially interact with people on Mastodon, Lens Protocol, or Blue Sky. It seems like Meta has its eye on decentralized networks... This feature is expected to be available soon. In the meantime, we can repost Threads content on Instagram Stories and Feed with charming templates, just like Twitter users do today, using workaround apps.
Data Collection and your Instagram Account
Data privacy on Threads is a bad joke. Nobody expected anything different from the owners of Facebook and Instagram, but Threads has the widest user data collection that we have heard of so far. Despite this almost abusive relationship, most people seem not to care about it, as evidenced by the 2 billion users that Instagram has worldwide.
TweetUser's data collected by Threads, as reported in the App Store.
A somewhat silly discussion that circulates on the network is about quitting accounts. We access Threads through our Instagram account. So if we delete our Threads account, we are also deleting our Instagram account. However, nobody is obliged to stay active on Threads to maintain their Instagram.
If you don't like the experience, you can simply deactivate your profile on the new platform and continue using your Insta account as before. We already do this without drama to access YouTube via a Google account or MS Office via a Hotmail account on Microsoft.
Threads Dictionary
Like any community, the Threads community also has its own vocabulary. In summary, it uses terms used on Instagram, but there's a catch that can confuse:
"THREAD" on Twitter is a series of posts from the same person. "THREAD" on Threads is a series of comments from different people in a post.
This highlights the emphasis on DEBATE over SPEECH on the new platform, both in branding and in the user interface. Whether this premise will hold in practice, we will find out.
Here are the key terms to understand the community there:
AÇAO | No TWITTER | No THREADS |
a thread | It's the thread with the posts of a single person. | It's the thread with the post of one person and the comments of several others just below. |
a publication | tweet | post |
post something | to tweet | to post |
share a post | retweet | repost |
share a post with any of your comments | tweet with comments | quote |
comment on someone's post | answer | reply |
Is it going to kill Twitter?
Threads has its merits, but the real drama - with fanboy meltdowns on both sides - is about direct competition with Twitter. Isn't it?
Musk felt the blow, pretending to disregard the threat and proposing a contest of "dick size" - in those terms - with the immaturity that is characteristic of him.
In practice, he has reasons to be afraid.
Although we receive ads in our feed, comments, and even in the notification bar, ad revenue on Twitter plummeted after its acquisition by Elon Musk. With major brands wanting to stay away from ideological disputes and hate speech that has invaded the platform, ad revenue dropped by 89%, with a 59% decrease in the United States alone. Total revenues were cut in half.
In addition to the hostile environment that pushes away major brands, traffic on the platform has experienced significant declines, especially in July 2023.
Access to the Twitter domain from January to July 2023 - ColudFlare.com
Why is the threat real?
These problems have been accumulating in recent months, but the truth is that Twitter didn't have any competitors in the market until now. Interesting options like Mastodon, Lens Protocol, Blue Sky, and the hyped Koo did not pose a challenge to Twitter because they lack the 3 essential characteristics of a successful network:
Audience: If people are not on a network, we say hello and leave. Like on Koo and Lens.
Infrastructure: If the network is constantly experiencing bugs - like Blue Sky during this beta period - the audience will leave and it won't be able to establish itself.
Money: If the network cannot generate substantial revenue to sustain its operations, it becomes insolvent and shuts down.
And Threads has all three.
It has the audience base of Instagram, along with idols and influencers who mobilize the public. It has the technological expertise, and Meta boasts the only truly profitable business model for social media today - while others may achieve billions in revenue, they also suffer from equally significant costs and are "trading onions" most of the time, as we say in Brazil.
Therefore, for the first time, Twitter does run the risk of dying in the face of competition.
But let's not overreact. It's a shark's game and both teams have plenty of ammunition in this battle. And even if Twitter or Threads die, it doesn't happen by decree. The platform gradually becomes empty until no one remembers it, as happened with Orkut, MySpace, and Google+.
Threads for Web3?
Accept one truth: Nobody knows how this fight will end. Not even you.
The good part is that users usually benefit from competition. And since both sides are equally ruthless in extracting money from our attention, being a fanboy in this battle is a fancy way of being foolish.
Onboarding a New Audience
The "core" audience of Web3 is currently on Twitter, which is great because we can easily find each other in one place and have great conversations every night in Spaces. It's beautiful.
But at the same time, it also isolates us, restricts the debate, and imposes barriers for everyone in the building who needs to break out of this bubble.
In the planning of Rio Frenz, for example, I discovered that a crucial part of my audience is still outside of Web3. Like many other projects, at some point, I will have to reach these people. Today, they are on Instagram, but the "locked" content in images and videos is very limited, time-consuming, expensive to produce, and doesn't fit with the agile and trendy discourse of Web3.
In this aspect, Threads emerges as a helpful tool for builders because it combines the communication agility of Twitter with the massive audience of Instagram.
Centralization
The highly centralized nature of Threads goes against the philosophy of Web3 itself. And that is TERRIBLE.
However, Twitter is even more centralized and worse in this aspect.
Zuck's signal to the Fediverse indicates that he intends to connect Threads to other decentralized networks, which is great. Meanwhile, Twitter is isolating itself more and more every day, even starting to charge for its API access, which used to be free - for example, comments on Twitter cannot appear in your YouTube lives unless you pay for it.
The use of user data on both platforms is a horror story in terms of Web3 standards and values.
Alright. But what about the content?
What's the vibe of the platform?
At this point, it's a bit premature for us to discuss... It needs time to consolidate.
In this first week, the feed is chaotic, with seemingly random posts and a bunch of people trying to be friendly to gather as many followers as possible.
The good part is the enormous number of people from Web3 that I have met - and they are outside my Twitter circle - the big influencers who ignore you on Twitter respond to you on Threads, and YES, the memes are great!
@jeremyynft
And what about you?
How do these changes affect your project?
Indeed, we don't know where this battle will lead. But neglecting a channel like Threads or even Twitter itself is not very smart for us as web professionals.
Find out more about Rio Frenz
Get to know us at www.RioFrenz.com.
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