I think threads users are mostly people who got nudged there from Facebook, not a lot of organic growth there since the feeds were so useless for actually doing social media from what it sounded like. Here, I think the lion’s share of us bailed directly from Twitter for various reasons
Yeah, that's a good point. Feels like they got a huge leg up from the Instagram tie-in, but honestly the only people I see actively use it do so as just another place to post their IG photos and engagement bait. Feel like there wasn't much opportunity for organic growth as a place for conversation.
Isn't threads a FB/Insta related product? Almost signed up for Insta once, then was warned they may already have all my personal info thanks to sponging current accounts. No thanks.
Nov 16. Musk “super appreciates” the fact that IBM, Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros, Lions Entertainment and Discovery have resumed their ads on X, as they rebuild trust.
Underlying threat to these big corporations by Elon Musk to stay on X ‘or else’ is the issue. Fear and greed on display.
Elon Musk “super appreciates” the fact that IBM, Disney, Comcast, Warner Bris, Lions Entertainment and Discovery have resumed their ads on X, as they rebuild trust.” #auspol
I agree there is hostility but that’s the end users. It will happen here too. No platform is immune to human nature. So far, human natures worst instincts are put on steroids on social media.
I've not used it but from using Instagram and FB and what I heard from my husband I am beyond uninterested. Meta has a habit of pushing users to behave a certain way that I find deeply irritating. The UX on I stageam is just not comparable to here.
The biggest issue with Threads is that if it's part of IG, it should have been on IG; if they wanted to create their own text based social media, it should have been a completely separate from FB/IG. Doing both made a badly designed, hobbled mess that nobody likes.
Exactly this. I hated that Threads was connected to my insta. I made a new insta just to have a separate threads account which just makes everything convoluted.
But then I found Bluesky! I haven't been on insta or threads in a week and don't miss either one.
Ad companies are coming back to Twitter now that Trump has won. So for a while their revenue will actually bump up. However, if BlueSky maintains growth, they could still leave again and replace Twitter with this platform. Even though I hate ads, I hate Elon more.
I've heard talk about some type of subscription model. But I'm skeptical that will bring in the type of 10x return that VCs are in it for. They recently raised $15M. How many subscription (and at what price) do they need in order to turn that into $150M?
Disney, Comcast, IBM and a few others have already announced that they’re resuming ads on X/Twitter. But at this point, I think they’re paying more for access than for any effective advertising strategy.
Well, I guess it's their money, but I really can't see that they are going to get any business from it. Would Comcast hope to stem the loss of subscribers? Would crypto bros care what Linux disto their mining runs on? Would alt right neo nazis be interested in Moana 2? Somehow, I think not.
I don’t know. I feel like it’s going to wind up a fringey little sewer like the chans and will just kind of atrophy out of the general public’s consciousness and advertisers won’t even be tempted
Genuinely don't see any Ads on X, I guess a combintion of UBlock, PiHole and my router stops them all, same on YouTube. Are there (supposed to be) Ads here on BSky?
I was getting an ad for a game where I could control a girl that looked 12 years old. (Animated) I couldn't block it. Tried to deal with it for a week, but I had to get out. There's something really wrong going on at Twitter.
Linda Yaccarrino, X CEO, brought in to try and stem the advertising losses. Faced an uphill battle with Elon's antics, driving users out and opening lawsuits against advertisers.
Doesn't SimilarWeb offer DAU estimates for Twitter/X as well? Should be an interesting comparison too
In any case let's see how far Bluesky makes it up their monthly "most visited websites" ranking for November once that comes out (last month's still had X at #6) https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/
(btw people should be aware that SimilarWeb's indirectly inferred estimates come with all kinds of caveats. E.g. a few years ago they made some rather bold claims about Wikipedia traffic which were not consistent with the Wikimedia Foundation's own directly measured numbers)
If #Meta didn't keep censoring people, while doing nothing to control the proliferation of bot accounts, the platform might have done better. Hope a lot of the good ones find their way over here. Until we all have to bail again that is.
I report at least several fake accounts every week in the hopes that Meta moderation will finally do something about them. But the accounts are NEVER purged. So useless.
I'm starting to suspect many of those bots are either Meta's own, or sanctioned by Meta. Musk and Zuckerberg are very similar in their obsession to control the narratives people ingest on their platforms.
Most of them are SE Asian accounts that do the "Check out this t-shirt", "duct cleaning", "car detailing" spam posts. An all blonde family with the name "Mike Smith" yet all your friends are from Bangalore? Uh-huh...
Same with poor comments filled with hate and racism. Apparently they never breach ‘community rules’. I’ve given up reporting. Blocking doesn’t really help either more accounts filled with hate keep popping up - which I guess was your point to begin with.
the only 'hate' and 'racism' on Meta platforms that breach community rules are anti-zionist posts in support of Palestine. Then the Meta SS comes down on you like a ton of bricks.
I'm gonna push back on this a little bit. If Threads wasn't connected to Instagram and looked more like Twitter, ppl would have stayed there regardless of Meta's policies. Threads is so barren, unintuitive, & ugly to use it's largely pointless.
Threads could have been good if it allowed people to escape "the algorithm". Last I checked, there was no way to view posts in chronological order, which was one of the things people used to like most about Twitter.
Plus it's owned by Meta, and lots of people want to avoid that too.
IG users are sick of it now. Threads aside, I wonder if Bsky could be a good IG replacement. I want to start a new BSky a/c to try, but I want it completely divorced from this a/c & app install8n or I'll get them confused, & to not put all my eggs in the same app basket. Different devices, perhaps.
None of these platforms are truly safe spaces for people who hold different views from the owners or the moderators. I agree that the best solution is to have different app baskets and continue demanding our 'freedom of expression' rights
My Facebook page was full of scams and bad AI. But I got posts removed when I posted an article describing a specific scam proliferating on FB.
I’ve deleted my FB account. Instagram is probably next.
Finding people to follow is hard on Threads. My biggest problem is not having a suggested follows based on someone else you follow like Twitter has or a starter pack function like Bluesky has.
Certainly when initially launched it was not launched in the EU for (one presumes) GDPR reasons. Having seen some of the erm "creative" approaches to GDPR from Meta I can only assume it is absolutely and hopelessly toxic with regards to personal data and user privacy.
I use Facebook often, to stay connected with family and other communities. Threads inserts posts into my Facebook feed constantly. If you click on one, it hijacks you over to Threads. SO irritating.
If people are using Xhitter as a benchmark for total number of engaged users, take into account the massive number of bots and fake accounts in with that. You don’t have that on Bluesky.
My brief experience with Threads was unpleasant. Most of the time, my feed was full of posts about how Gen X is demonic (paraphrasing). Not quite as awful as X but well in its way. Thankful for sanctuary here.
Understand that they are going to flood the zone with MAGAt bullshit in order to get thousands and thousands of bans to use as evidence when Carr becomes minister of Propaganda Controls, so he can go hog wild trying to shut down any dissent and liberal voices for "censorship."
I'm also on Threads & FB. I know I should give Zuckerberg the same treatment elon got. I'm not ready to abandon those platforms yet.
It's awesome to see BlueSky taking off & growing at such a phenomenal rate!
Most of the Threads use base is just people with Facebook and Instagram accounts that logged in out of curiosity. I'm happy to have a non Musk/Zuckerberg option!
I can think of two things that lead to this, the fact that Bluesky was headed up by Jack Dorsey and people don't necessarily want to tie themselves to Meta even more that they've done so already.
Bluesky has never been headed up by Jack Dorsey, he just initiated/funded the project at Twitter and sat on the board. He also stopped endorsing it pretty quickly and went over to Nostr, which is full of crypto scams and nazis.
Threads is terrible, wave after wave of sex bots, also dating site now, feed is all female now, scantily clad women with subscription links, and lonely women looking for soul mates and companions.
The all-algorithm nature of threads was a deal-breaker for me from the beginning. Especially since it launched around the time FB introduced "We're only going to show you the 'most relevant' comments. From your friends. On your own posts. Okay?"
This is why I never got on Instagram and even though I was very tempted to so I could have a Threads accnt, I never did b/c I want to stay away from Meta as much as I can. Now I want to stay away from anything having to do with EM.
I just can’t with any Meta products any more. And a lot of my friends are still faithfully there, and that’s how you’re supposed to keep up with them. But I can’t and won’t live in the Zuckerverse.
Ah, yes, the cryptobro who originally started bluesky with the eventual goal of making it an nft marketplace (and it SHOWED in the codebase before he left). Thank fuck he isn't involved with bsky anymore.
I'd argue that most people who are relatively clued up about Twitter know who Jack is. Especially the bigger Twitter accounts, who are one of the main reasons why so many people have moved to Bluesky.
Anyone who knows who Jack Dorsey is and cares what he thinks would know that he loudly left Bluesky more than six months ago and urged people to stay on X. I don't think people are going in the other direction because they like him.
Yup, I definitely hold Jack accountable for his part in Twitter going downhill. Was the reason why I didn't look into Bluesky until recently when I found out he's gone from Bluesky.
It's got a really aggressive algorithm. It never shows stuff that's interesting, it just shows stuff that will get you to interact, which is to say stuff that'll make you angry - either legitimately or as cynical rage baiting.
It's like the worst parts of twitter with worse moderation.
From what I understand, Jack had very little actual impact on the direction of Bluesky, and hasn’t been involved at all for over 6 months. They’ve got a small but an incredible team that deserves this credit.
My experience with Facebook was that every change made it worse, so there's no point in my even checking out a Meta product. Whether it starts out bad or they set the hook before destroying it, eventually I'm going to regret it.
Yep. In both elections I’ve cared about this year (UK and US) it was piss poor. Twitter, even in its death throes, was up to the minute news, Threads was like reading last week’s newspaper.
The Threads overlords were laser focused on deleting posts (by liberals) and putting users (liberals) in time out (or deleting their accounts altogether) for saying ‘crackers’, ‘rapist’, ‘fuck’, ‘Nazi’, etc. I don’t take kindly to being censored.
I wonder how many of these daily users were Instagram posters also. I started threads off my IG and then quickly became annoyed at it mixing threads and IG notifications together, and deactivated Threads.
I'm confused. "Despite a massive head start, Blue Sky..."???? Blue Sky had a massive head start??? Really? I guess I missed that news. Oh Oh Oh, I figured it out: in standard English, it would be "Despite a massive head start, THREADS was overtaken by Blue Sky." Phew. Got it. #misplacedmodifier
And those Threads numbers are misleading if they include "deactivated" accounts. I signed on before I knew that it would decimate my carefully curated Insta account (art interests only, and I have been successful in keeping it that way.)
Helps to relativize the hurrays that accompanied the "10 million users!" happiness, when less than a million of those were daily ones (sadly). And the ratio hasn't improved.
I would be curious to see the stats for web and app users combined.
Threads started without a web client with just the app, as well as instagram being mobile focused in general. So my assumption is that most Threads users interact via the app vs the Web.
I don't use threads because you have no choice about connecting with your friends on Facebook. That makes it redundant. And I like some anonymity. FB is for people I actually know.
That's why I'm not into it. FB/IG are fine for people I know but X/Threads/Bsky was more for discussing with strangers, who I may not agree with and may never hear from again after an exchange.
I get that you can disconnect the Meta accounts but don't feel like dealing with it for little gain.
This is because threads posters are the unholy lovechildren of twitter and LinkedIn, a place so utterly devoid of original or interesting thought that it sucks the will to live right out of your spine.
Also on Threads. But has to be said, I find the experience smoother & more appealing here. The only thing I really feel is missing, though not sure if it's a good thing or not, is a currently trending topic bar. I feel less connected to live unfolding events.
Though it's rarely good news these days.
I tried threads for a while it’s pretty crap to be honest , I’ve been very impressed with @bsky.app so far vet functional and no bots (I don’t know that for a fact )
Sadly Threads became an extension of the modern form of IG , with threads posts solely for engagement & clickbait. LinkedIn style if you will. Most posters were not posting for ‘the chats’, which is what old Twitter users truly craved
Kudos to Threads for aggressively refusing to provide anything more than a superficial resemblance to Twitter. Who knew a constant stream of asinine Instagram comments without pictures wouldn’t be a success?
Sweet. After deactivating Twitter I looked at Threads a couple of days. Then remembered I had a BlueSky account! Reminds me of original Twitter. Bye Threads.
PS let’s have more clever, funny stuff. Love history. Love politics but we are not only our politics.
Yeah but these are mostly sign ups. Threads has 200m monthly active accounts. Bluesky has 20m total accounts. Not all of these people are going to stay active daily. Still, Bluesky is so much better for not filtering politics and for allowing blocking.
I tried threads. I wanted to leave Twitter because I was getting tired of being attacked by extreme right-wing people. I went to threads and got attacked by extreme left-wing people.
Things can change in a hurry and momentum is a big thing. I think Threads has already lost. The post-election resistance movement is energized and it's here. For people on these platforms for reasons other than politics there's not that much incentive to switch from Twitter to Threads. /1
...and that's my only concern. If BlueSky is where the left hangs out & Twitter is where the fascists hang out, then there are all the people on Twitter for reasons not related to politics & it'll be hard for them to avoid seeing the RW propaganda & being swayed by it. IOW if you're a low info.../2
Yes, people will go elsewhere, but if you're just into say sports, you'll stay 'cause that's where your community is, and if you see anything political, it'll be the fascist stuff. And if the only think you know about the pres. election is "Kamala will destroy humanity", you're going to be affected.
Well what I'm saying is if you're on 'X' for say sports, you'll continue to get sports, but for anything political it's going to be Musk fascist stuff, & it would be hard not to get influenced by that if that's all you see. But you're right, even if there are Musk opposing posts, no one sees them.
The sort has already happened. Low-information voters were already not seeing us. The Left leaving Xitter for good won't change their environment a bit.
Fair point but it's not all or nothing. Low info voters who used to occasionally see left-leaning views will soon see very little. I'm not advocating that people stay on Twitter. But the larger problem remains - how to cut thru the RW propaganda to get to low info voters./1
We can hope that low info voters with other interests might have a desire to join BlueSky but it's a difficult proposition when they've got their communities built out over many years on Twitter.
Twitter/X is so far gone I don't there is much to be done. Don't think the sane folks or even plain old news content has much influence there - they just subject themselves to constant harassment.
Yes but I still think a lot of people are not motivated to get off of it because they have their communities of whatever, built up over many years. You have to find the political / harassment stuff revolting enough to get off of it, and if you’re always on your following feed you might not see it.
I'm not here for politics, I'm here for knowledge sharing in fields I follow, especially clean energy. And I hate being subjected to bad algorithms and bad repetitive ads.
I use Twitter for lists I have tweaked over 10 years. Mainly news, science and weather geeks. It is hard to get off that platform but I trying. The tweet deck is a daily for me.
Indeed. That's why Bluesky needs to have lively non-political conversations about niche things, e.g. commodity prices, electric vehicles, cross-border trains, perfumes ... whatever.
I have this totally inappropriate vision of Zuck demanding seppuku from Mosseri for missing the boat on starter packs (and discouraging political discussions)
Yeah, although I feel like Threads numbers are somewhat overinflated by Instagram signups..? So many complain how it ~feels~ ghostly or you need to hustle the algorithm. Easily 90% of my follows and followers there are from IG and rarely ever post or engage past their first.
I'm finding that I'm being followed by a number of nubile young ladies (AKA #bots) since I joined @bluesky only days ago,just as I was in the other place. It's very frustrating.
I am glad to see this. People flocked to threads looking for a Twitter replacement but it just wasn’t it (for a variety of reasons). I always thought Bluesky was more Twitter-esque but the people weren’t here. And now they are here and this feels almost identical to early Twitter.
I would very suspect about anything Mosseri says without actual data; he could be talking Threads traffic alone or IG + Threads. The apps are so intertwined, it's hard to tell. A lot of the trackers use Instagram domains. Not to mention they Threads posts into the IG feed - how is that counted?
Threads was never meant to replace Twitter. They wanted/want it to be an Instagram-like Twitter. In my view, massive failure. A bit like Nokia or Motorola not adapting to a changed phone environment.
Threads I've found better for TV/Movie and pop culture discussions, while Bluesky is better for political and news discussion. I have a place for both right now.
I was all gung ho for Threads, but it just never clicked for me. They made some choices early on that I think hurt their chances at keeping long time Twitter users.
Is it me or does this read as though Bluesky had the headstart?
Also, should it not be said by what measure (daily active users in the US) Bluesky has overtaken Threads?
Comments
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/elon-musk-reacts-to-major-advertisers-returning-to-x-we-super-appreciate-/articleshow/115345191.cms
Elon Musk “super appreciates” the fact that IBM, Disney, Comcast, Warner Bris, Lions Entertainment and Discovery have resumed their ads on X, as they rebuild trust.” #auspol
Facebook
WhatsApp
Instagram
India is the number one user base
But then I found Bluesky! I haven't been on insta or threads in a week and don't miss either one.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/24/bluesky-raises-15m-series-a-plans-to-launch-subscriptions/
Can't be good for their brand...
such is the depth of Elon’s incompetence
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Was also one of the last straws for me
In any case let's see how far Bluesky makes it up their monthly "most visited websites" ranking for November once that comes out (last month's still had X at #6) https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/
Plus it's owned by Meta, and lots of people want to avoid that too.
I’ve deleted my FB account. Instagram is probably next.
Enough to persuade me "Never!"
It's awesome to see BlueSky taking off & growing at such a phenomenal rate!
https://bsky-users.theo.io
P.S. You're going to need a somewhat bigger Y axis.
The problem with Threads is that it's not a Twitter substitute. Threads is averse to politics and real time news
In my defense I barely tried Threads
It's like the worst parts of twitter with worse moderation.
The only thing threads had going was that it wasn't Leon and it onboarded Instagram follows.
FB and especially Insta are friends-only for me. Twitter/Bluesky is about affinity groups for me. Even my real-name account is just professional.
I don’t want the cross pollination.
Twitter was for people you like but don’t know.
Bad algo, poor engagement, and just a pretty boring space, IMHO. I go over there now and then and my thought every time is “graveyard.”
Oh, and fuck Zuck.
Deleted FB &Threads last week.
The Sky is the limit!!!
Numbers here don't pass basic sanity checks, e.g.:
In earnings call Meta reported 275M monthly active.
Assuming ~10% U.S. and DAU/MAU ratio of 0.5, this would give ~14M.
Way off from 2.5M, even if assumptions differ
i need a good laugh
I would be curious to see the stats for web and app users combined.
Threads started without a web client with just the app, as well as instagram being mobile focused in general. So my assumption is that most Threads users interact via the app vs the Web.
I get that you can disconnect the Meta accounts but don't feel like dealing with it for little gain.
Though it's rarely good news these days.
It’s all new and exciting now 😜
PS let’s have more clever, funny stuff. Love history. Love politics but we are not only our politics.
“Do you think the Threads DAU is too high or too low??
Which part is hard to believe?
What’s Instagram’s DAU??
And is Monthly DAU just all the DAU added up (30 days * DAU)?
So something is wrong.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/threads-reaches-275-million-users/731572/
Relatively quiet there, but that could change, given the long arm of the MAGA kleptocracy and their erratic actions.
Threads is just awful in every way.
"Morning Zuk!" 😂
Also, should it not be said by what measure (daily active users in the US) Bluesky has overtaken Threads?