It was a pointless question to ask, given that the choice of Threads over Twitter is purely a personal decision. Be that as it may, we asked the question, and here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the July 13 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. Is switching to Threads a wise thing to do?
A. It’s too early to give a judgment on the question with certainty. It’s one thing for a big tech company like Instagram (read Meta) with billions of users to introduce a new social network, leveraging its popularity and large user base. It’s another thing to ensure its instant success through fast user adoption in the faddish and fickle social media market.
The strategic intent behind the launch of Thread is not only to leverage Meta’s large user base, but also , I presume, to torpedo/ squash a leading competitor’s brand (unarticulated though but Elon Musk’s tweets reveals such a possibility). It’s a usual marketplace practice. Collateral damages are a normal phenomenon.
What does history says though is that one can’t extrapolate past to future. But, as they say, one who doesn’t learn from history is bound to repeat it. Let’s go back to 2011 when Google (now Alphabet) rolled out a social network app called Google+. It was discussed in the business circle that it was a possible move to destabilise Facebook (now Meta). Come 2018, Google+ was relegated to history though the marketer did everything to win allegiance of its large consumer base. Using scale, especially in case of tech companies, is a standard practice of leveraging built-in advantage. But is size always a competitive advantage in the loyalty fragile social media market? That’s a million or billion dollar question. Would Thread enable its users to find friends and influencers that Twitter has managed to accomplish, so far? How does a tech giant ensure to keep spams and grifters from flooding the new app.
I have no answer to that. You and I can try to be an early adopter and start threading but the real answer to your question is hidden in the wombs of the future.