[Global Focus] Behind Threads with 100 Million Subscribers... Antitrust Expert Says "It's Hard to Be Happy"

Secured 100 Million in Just 5 Days After Launch... Huge Success in Early Attention
Facing Challenges Like Service Enhancement, Monopoly Concerns, and Political-Social Issue Policies

Meta Platforms' ambitiously launched social networking service (SNS) 'Threads' is causing a seismic shift in the related market and showing very rapid growth. Threads, which succeeded in its initial popularity based on the powerful SNS foundation of Instagram, is drawing attention as to whether it can completely surpass Twitter, the dominant text-based SNS, and solidify its market dominance.

For now, it seems that Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, has secured a clear advantage over Elon Musk, Twitter's chairman, but there are considerable voices calling for improvements to Threads' service, and issues such as antitrust and extremism remain to be confronted. The key will be whether Meta can continue to increase its loyal user base.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

◇Initial Attention a Huge Success... Faster Signup Rate than ChatGPT and TikTok

Threads announced on the 10th (local time) that it surpassed 100 million users. Threads exceeded 30 million users within 16 hours after its launch on the afternoon of the 5th, and then surpassed 70 million users within a day and a half. CEO Zuckerberg, who set a goal of 1 billion users, evaluated the current level as "far exceeding our expectations."

The success of Threads is considered exceptional. The speed at which Threads reached 100 million users is faster than ChatGPT, which sparked the global generative artificial intelligence (AI) craze this year. ChatGPT recorded 100 million users two months after its launch at the end of November last year. TikTok took nine months, and Instagram took two and a half years to reach 100 million users. Threads secured users at a faster pace than other platforms that have generated buzz, including ChatGPT, in the SNS market.

The major factor behind Threads' early success is Instagram's influence. Instagram is the world's largest SNS with 2 billion users worldwide. Threads is built on Instagram, allowing users who already have an account to log in immediately without a separate registration process. The fact that celebrities such as Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MS), and Oprah Winfrey easily joined on the first day of launch is interpreted as being supported by this environment.

There is also analysis that Musk helped Threads' success. After acquiring Twitter in October last year, he created various barriers on Twitter, causing Twitter users to look for new SNS platforms and move to Threads. He introduced Twitter Blue, Twitter's paid subscription model, and recently limited the number of posts users can see per day. Although Musk had no intention to help, the timing of Twitter's new policy implementation and Threads' launch coincided, naturally leading users to switch, according to evaluations.

Twitter's user base is about 240 million. IT media The Verge reported, citing data from web infrastructure and security company Cloudflare, that Twitter's traffic has sharply declined since Threads' launch.

◇The Key is Maintaining Interest... 'Three Challenges of Threads' Meta Faces

The point to focus on now is whether Meta's Threads can completely capture the hearts of its registered users. Due to the nature of SNS, even if the entry barrier is low and users join easily, if it is difficult to use and lacks addictiveness, it is hard to retain users. The New York Times (NYT) analyzed that users who said they would leave Twitter went to other SNS platforms like Bluesky or Mastodon but eventually returned to Twitter because these issues were not resolved.

Industry experts point out that Threads must address three challenges to succeed: △service improvement △antitrust concerns △political and social issue management.

First, the service limitations raised about Threads are that it is a text-based SNS with a short character limit, similar to Twitter. Moreover, unlike Twitter, Threads lacks content search and hashtag functions. Both features allow posts to appear sequentially when interests are entered. These are important functions for post exposure, and their absence in Threads has been emphasized as necessary by creators, according to foreign media.

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

Threads also lacks features such as sending direct messages or viewing posts from followed users in a continuous stream. Another issue is that to delete a Threads account, users must also delete their Instagram account, which has been criticized. Adam Mosseri, Instagram's CEO, stated that they are considering adding these features following Threads' launch.

Another problem is the antitrust issue surrounding Threads. Meta is a big tech company owning Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. While Threads' launch seems to reduce Twitter's dominance in the SNS market, it simultaneously increases Meta's dominance. CNN reported, "Meta has long been criticized for leveraging its market dominance and copying competitors' services to stay ahead, thereby blocking market competition," and experts worry that Threads' success could give Meta and CEO Zuckerberg even more power and dominance.

Antitrust issues are important in the SNS market because SNS companies can collect users' personal information. Regulators do not want a single company to have increased market dominance that allows it to exploit sensitive information monopolistically.

Accordingly, although Threads has been launched in over 100 countries, its release in the European Union (EU) has been postponed due to the 'Digital Markets Act,' which prevents abuse of market dominance by large platforms. Rather than the EU blocking Threads' launch, Meta has voluntarily delayed it, and the decision on whether to launch in Europe is expected after additional EU guidelines are issued in September.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Tim Wu, a Columbia University professor known as a designer of the Biden administration's competition and antitrust policies, told the NYT, "Generally, we want big companies to compete rather than sit still," but he also evaluated Meta's accumulation of more data through operating many SNS platforms as "somewhat difficult to be happy about."

Furthermore, analyses suggest that Threads' success will depend on how it handles political and social issues going forward. While Instagram mainly dealt with content centered on photos, fashion, and shopping, Twitter was a platform for expressing opinions on various political and social issues and a gateway for users to read news.

At this point, Meta is distancing Threads from being a Twitter substitute and is keeping a distance from such issues. This is because Meta faced management difficulties due to content moderation issues related to the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections, privacy protection, SNS addiction, and various political and social problems.

CEO Zuckerberg emphasized that Threads will be a "(user) friendlier place" than Twitter. CEO Mosseri also said, "There are many amazing communities related to sports, music, fashion, beauty, and entertainment," adding, "Political and hard news (politics, economy, international issues) will inevitably appear on Threads, but we will not engage in any acts that incite or promote them."

However, with the U.S. presidential election scheduled for next year, it is pointed out that it will be difficult for Threads, now a major SNS, to be free from political and social issues. According to foreign media, white supremacist Richard Spencer and others joined Threads within a day of its launch, and conspiracy theory posts have also appeared on Threads. Subsequently, right-wing users posted on Twitter that Threads censored their posts.