Is Meta capable of doing this? First impressions of Threads Do you think this is plagiarized?

A lot of the app’s features are similar to those of Twitter. Character limit, reposting, feed. There’s something familiar about all of it.

According to Zuckerberg, millions have signed up in the first few hours. When a tech boss tells you how many users are on a platform, you should always be sceptical. There do seem to be a lot of people using it already, however.

Due to its connection to Instagram, it’s partly responsible for that. Signing up on Instagram gives you the option to “follow all” of your Instagram followers.

Your Instagram friends will likely sign up to follow you, but you’ll also have a ready-made list of followers.

That’s clever from Mr. Zuckerberg, and why big tech companies have an advantage over smaller ones.

Unlike other app developers, Meta does not create its own apps. Having more than 1 billion Instagram followers is giving it an enormous boost.

The likes of Bluesky and Mastodon lacked such a luxury. The company started with no users.

It doesn’t matter to Mr. Zuckerberg whether it is “fair” or not. As a clone of TikTok, Reels is a copy of another app he’s already copied to great success.

Mr Zuckerberg has also utilized celebs on Instagram and got some of them to appear on Threads, such as Shakira and Gordon Ramsay.

There will be a lot of buzz around the app, which will delight Mark Zuckerberg. Network effects are the key to social media success. Apps get better as more people use them.

Network effects can create a tipping point in social media. The more friends you have on a platform, the more likely you are to join.

A social media platform doesn’t make it easy to create a network effect. When it works, it works really well. Additionally, communities can leave social media platforms quickly – and it can be devastating when they do. You may be familiar with Myspace or Bebo.

However, let’s focus on some of Threads’ problems. The biggest problem I see is that it only has one feed.

There is a recommendations feed on Twitter, as well as an option to only see tweets from the people you follow.

It mixes content you might like with content from your followers in Threads’ feed. There is a possibility of that becoming annoying.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work well on your computer – it doesn’t seem to have desktop functionality yet. It’s a shame that happened.

It’s hard to see what’s trending since there seems to be no trending information.

Twitter has a message function that Facebook lacks.

Just like Twitter, users can buy blue ticks for a monthly fee when it comes to verification.

Despite plenty of users, it’s still smaller than Twitter, even though it feels (sort of) buzzy. Since there are only hours left in the app’s lifecycle, your posts won’t go as far or be seen by as many people.

This app feels like an “initial version” according to Mark Zuckerberg. It is good at doing the basics. There are no thrills in this app at the moment.

Thus far, Meta’s boss will be over the moon with how things are going. As a result of the years of bad press he’s received, he is reinventing himself as the sensible tech billionaire who wants a friendly social media platform.

You can tell Elon Musk is riled up about this. It’s great that they’re so sanely run, he tweeted sarcastically on Monday.

Mr Zuckerberg may have been nervous that disaffected Twitter users would reject Meta’s offer, but so far those fears seem unfounded.

With an app that works perfectly, if not spectacularly, that could be a real problem for Mr Musk.