🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
Threads, Instagram’s X (formerly Twitter) competitor, is struggling to keep users around following its blockbuster launch, according to data from Insider Intelligence.
The data, which was first reported on by CNBC, suggests that Threads will have far fewer monthly active users than Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok by the end of this year, but it may still have a chance to close the gap with X.
Surprisingly, Elon Musk’s X is forecast to have 56.1 million active monthly users in the US by the end of 2023, but Insider Intelligence warns that this number won’t stay high for long.
“Threads received an initial boost from Twitter’s missteps, but it can’t rely on X defectors to continue to grow,” Jasmine Enberg, Insider Intelligence’s principal analyst, says in a statement.
However, the number of daily active users on the platform rapidly declined in the following weeks, with Sensor Tower and Similarweb reporting significant drop-offs.
Although Threads is meant to be a direct replacement for X, it may need to add more than just core features in order for it to gain and keep new users.
Saved 46% of original text.
I don’t get it
If people want a twitter alternative, why don’t they just go to mastodon instead of threads?
I’d guess there’s a few reasons.
Threads was able to be pushed through other large commercial platforms, and onboarding was trivial for anyone coming through the portal.
Mastodon lacks that kind of exposure and the onboarding process of choosing an instance makes it feel more confusing.
As a result, Threads starts off with a network effect that is quite a bit more advanced than Mastodon’s. It has more high profile users that maintain an active account. It also claims to want to join the fediverse, which makes users think that they can easily onboard with Mastodon in the near future.
Because famous figures or organizations are the primary draw for the mainstream audience over random users. And many use it because they themselves hope to use the huge platform to promote or try to become an influencer.
Yep, without actual big content creators the platform is just randos talking about their private life. That’s not inherently a bad thing but Mastodon often feels to me more like Facebook for software developers than something like Twitter where’d if actually find interesting new people to follow or art/music/games to enjoy.
Lack of proper discovery tools and algorithm is also a big issue.
Mastodon often feels to me more like Facebook for software developers
I wish. I’ve tried to curate mine as such.
My mastodon feed is awash in spam from authors hucking their LLM generated stories. Constantly. And random low viewer count streamers spamming hashtags every hour 24/7.
It’s crazy how much LinkedIn-like sociopathy is out there right now. Makes sense given the huge spike in new accounts we’ve had in the last month.
Are you following a lot of hashtags? To me that was just a recipe to disaster, my feed almost became as deranged and unhinged as the “federated” feed which at times made twitter look tame. I mostly just follow a few people now that seemed like they are posting interesting stuff, hoping their boosts or favorites would lead to other like-minded people (it didn’t).
Mastodon seems to be more confusing than Threads or Bluesky for most users
Giant corporations as a comfort zone?
Maybe being stalked 24/7 is their kink?
Very easy start and algorithmic feed, I think.
I’d bet most of the people on theads aren’t looking for a “Twitter alternative” they just clicked on the button in the Instagram app. The rest are lost journos and clout chasers.
You badly underestimate the proportion of people who have never heard of Mastadon.
That number seems like a comically generous estimation in threads favor. The platform seems to have no content whatsoever
It just has to outlive Musksite.
I just want the FGC (Fighting Game Community) to move off Twitter (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)
Can you tell me more about this? I’m working on a tool that is attempting to help exactly with this type of migration from twitter/reddit to fediverse alternatives, perhaps I could try to set a Mastodon Mirror instance focused on specific twitter profiles.
I can’t help you much, unfortunately. I’ve been nearly inactive since I feel sick months ago and I stopped going to Twitter. If you search for FGC, I’m sure you can find interlinked big accounts.
Has anyone else noticed some people on lemmy referring to the fediverse as the threadiverse? That’s Threads astroturfing, right?
They’re always trying to get more users and make it more popular too, when that’s not the point of the fediverse.
I’m pretty sure “threadiverse” means Lemmy/Kbin which have threaded conversations, not Threads.
Ahh, okay.
