Experts Speak: Can Threads leapfrog X in the long run?

It's been over a month since Meta’s Threads’ launch that took over the social media world by garnering five million users in just the first few hours after going live. Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter rival saw an active daily user count of 44 million users in two days. But soon after its launch, the engagement dropped considerably by 70% and now stands at around 13 million active daily users. 

Although the platform saw a sudden and massive drop in users, the social platform has received a lot of positive feedback regarding digital marketing strategies. Experts think that the platform’s significant success is the ability of modern digital marketing efforts to increase cross-departmental collaboration and streamline communication. 

On the other side, its alleged competitor X (Twitter) is rebranding itself into an all-in-one social media platform for users and advertisers alike. In its most recent update, X announced early access to its latest feature, X Hiring (Beta) — a possible competition to LinkedIn. 

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Apply for the Beta today 🚀: https://t.co/viOQ9BUM3Y pic.twitter.com/AYzdBIDjds

— Hiring (@XHiring) August 25, 2023

The impending question that now stands is whether Threads will stand the test of time?

Krishnarao Buddha, Sr. Category Head - Marketing, Parle Products, thinks that user acceptance is fundamental to drive eyeballs. However, one needs to have a sizable user base to get acceptance from brands and advertisers to begin with.  

Tanvi Bosmia, Associate Account Director - SoCheers, said, "The majority seem to be taking a cautious approach, whilst waiting to see if the momentum is sustained and if it could become a potential platform in the long run."

Despite there being a lack of advertising opportunities in the initial days, many companies had already started churning out collaborations organically. 

Manas Barpande, Social Media Lead, Dunzo said, "While we haven’t been very active on the app so far, we’ll be experimenting with a couple of formats."

On the other hand, Dunzo is quite active on X, where it has gathered 24.1k followers over the years and is known for its moment marketing on this platform. 

Updates to Attract Brands?

As X goes through a makeover under Elon Musk’s helm, it has seen many changes. This lack of stability has led to an exodus of global advertisers and Musk has been pulling all stops to bring them back. The new updates that have followed on X (Twitter) have led to a 50% drop in advertising revenue, which was confirmed by Musk himself. 

Threads, on the other hand, has started introducing new features to attract brands. While there’s an absence of traditional advertising opportunities on the platform, the plan to roll out branded content features could facilitate partnerships between marketers and influencers for paid collaborations on the platform.

Witnessing a lukewarm response from brands to further enhance the collaborative capabilities of Threads, in its first month, the platform announced that it is testing branded content. In the absence of traditional advertising opportunities on the platform, this could facilitate partnerships between marketers and influencers for paid collaborations on the platform.

" might help in reaching out to new users who weren’t following the brand on Instagram and so were not ‘automatic’ followers on Threads. It might also help in benchmarking the ROI on social posts/ads compared to other platforms," said Barpande. 

The introduction of branded content could be a good starting point. 

Shradha Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Grapes said, "Branded content will certainly increase engagement on the platform but yes, it requires a lot more exclusive features to first bring the audience on board, where they are lacking at the moment."

Although the platform is actively trying to adjust to the consumers' needs, Krishnarao still thinks the lack of user attraction might be a big issue. 

X v/s Threads

Now that X is moving away from its positioning of a ‘text-based social media platform,’ there is a void in the market. Threads has the opportunity to capture a sizable audience if Zuckerberg plays his cards right. 

Krishnarao said that if Threads explores the space of only tweets, like the original bird app with the addition of short-form videos, then it has a good potential to attract a good chunk of the user base.

Suraj Nambiar, National Media Head, Tonic Worldwide, said, "If they are able to build a good user base and have a clear structure for users and brands, they can compete with X (Twitter)." 

Threads is backed by social media honchos such as Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri. Their platform, Facebook, has also seen its share of ups and downs but Zuckerberg and his team at Meta have managed to hold their ground. 

Talib Hussain, Head of Brand Strategy, Team Pumpkin, said, "With feature updates and the backing and power of Meta, we can be sure that Threads is not going to go down without a fight."

Experts are expecting more features in the future and are sure to see intense rivalry between Musk and Zuckerberg. 

Krishnarao said, “Threads has strong support from the House of Meta, I feel that eventually there’s a good possibility of Threads becoming a strong contender for Twitter globally.”

With WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram under its kitty, Meta’s scale is huge. It has been clubbing advertising formats for brands to offer them reach across its universe of apps. 

“Riding on Instagram's user base and Meta's support, it might set the stage for a thrilling social media showdown,” said Mitesh Kothari, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, White Rivers Media. 

Langoor Digital's CEO Venugopal Ganganna said, "Historically, big tech companies have become even bigger by using incumbent advantages of scale to their advantage."

While Threads has had a slow start, experts think that the platform’s parent company can save the day. 

“Currently, Threads and Twitter have unique features that set them apart, making them not direct competitors. However, if Meta implements changes that make them more similar in the future, the competition between them could intensify,” said Bosmia. 

Zuckerberg and Musk will continue to lock horns in the future. While X seems to be winning the race in the present, the platform that manages to win consumer trust in the long run with transparency and introduces the right tools for advertisers and creators, will win the battle. 

"If Mark Zuckerberg can solve serendipitous conversations and steer the platform towards becoming the definitive town square of the internet, Threads just might outrun and outrank Twitter in the long run," said Ganganna.  

"If Threads isn’t able to replicate Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp’s user count, attracting brands and agencies can be a critical path for the brand," Krishnarao of Parle Products told Social Samosa. 

"It will need to prove its metal in terms of showcasing to the users as to why they should be using Threads instead of X," added Krishnarao.