Threading Our Way Through 2023
Once upon a time in a land not so far away, two tech titans from rival companies engaged in a fierce battle to achieve monopoly in the tech industry.
Now when we say that all is fair in love and war, we’d like to formally request that an unbiased and objective third party referee clarify what the rules are for this newly developed Tech-CEO warfare, because the specific rules governing this conflict remain undefined.
Reminiscent of the Cola Wars between Pepsi and Coke between the 1970s and 1980s or the age-old feud between the Capulets and the Montagues… The rivalry of Musk and Zuck may even culminate in a fierce fist-off not far from fair Verona, in the Colosseum.
This war of the Tech Titans is unfolding on a grand scale, with unexpected manoeuvres and strategies, resembling a complex game of tri-dimensional chess, played across various platforms and levels. We wouldn’t be surprised if we woke up tomorrow to see Musk and Zuck in anti-gravity suits fighting with lightsabers on Jupiter because at this point, anything can happen.
Let’s get down to the nitty gritty:
2023 has seen Musk face numerous challenges and criticisms. His acquisition of Twitter and subsequent changes to the platform sparked global backlash. Meta, in response, retaliated by announcing their own Twitter alternative called Threads.
In true Platform45 style, we’re here to untangle some of the complexities of this plot with insights, perspectives and threads of our own…
In our internal Slack channel, aptly named “Random’’ for its welcoming of all things arbitrary and out-of-the-box, the discussion surrounding Threads sparked some intriguing thoughts.
Our Platform45 universe is populated with highly intelligent humans and one of our brilliant PO’s, Sheldon Mayhew, shared the following opinion:
“The launch of Meta’s new social media platform, Threads, adds a fascinating new dimension to the ongoing ‘Data Wars’. As we know, in the era of AI and machine learning, data is the new oil. Tech giants are in a constant race to gather and leverage data to train their large language models (LLMs) and other AI systems.
Threads, positioned as a competitor to Twitter, presents a unique opportunity for Meta. With users creating text-based posts and sharing photos and videos, the platform will generate a wealth of data. This data, if harnessed effectively, could provide valuable insights into user behaviour, preferences, and trends, and could be used to train and refine Meta’s AI models.
This strategic move by Meta is nothing short of genius. It’s a clear indication of their foresight in understanding the value of data and the role it will play in the AI race.
But it also raises some intriguing questions:
1. Will Meta be able to effectively leverage this new influx of data to gain an edge in the AI race?
2. How will Meta balance the need for data with the crucial need to protect user privacy?”
Amidst growing apprehensions regarding the security of personal data on existing and upcoming platforms, the introduction of Threads appears to exacerbate the issue. Rather than effectively addressing mounting privacy concerns, it seems that we are only further expanding the realm of “dark matter.”
No one can be blamed for thinking Zuck’s motives are anything short of nefarious, his quest to consolidate control of the internet more often than not puts the user in a vulnerable position and yet Threads has over 100 million users in just a few days.
As users we seem to buy into the hype and scandal surrounding Musk v Zuck without looking too deeply at the data risk implications.
Our Head Of Engineering, Frank, voices these concerns, “I don’t believe that Threads can be classified as innovation at all. It’s simply a tactic to increase user traffic.”
Since the beginning of the year, Meta has been facing criticism for falling short in various aspects, with Musk’s move to open up Twitter to more liberal free-speech and with Apple leading the charge in AV/VR, Threads feels like an attempted comeback for Meta with an ominous undertone.
Since its release, Musk has been calling ‘industrial espionage’ and ‘IP theft’ from the rooftops and taken legal action to prove as such. One of our BA’s, Daniël Louw, explains Elon’s reaction, “If Meta pulls this off, they will have Twitter’s lunch. They have the tech to scale already, and they have something like 2 billion users ready to start using it on day one. All you need is a couple of important people to move over, and the tide will be unstoppable.”
He elaborates further, “Twitter is not complex. It’s easy to build a feature parity product, and you can do it very quickly.The problem with all these new competitors (like BlueSky or Lemmy/Fedi) is market effects. Nobody wants to go to a place where there is no-one else. With Threads you basically get a community [sic] on launch.”
Accessibility is going to be a big thing for users, following Elon’s continued efforts to monetise Twitter, Threads is most probably the best timed launch ever.
Housed in an already popular platform and providing a similar user experience, Threads is projected to gain traction and threaten Twitter’s continuing popularity.
“Musk is trying to monetize Twitter because they are losing lots of ad revenue. So they put a login-wall on Twitter, you can’t access twitter without a login, and then they severely limited the amount of tweets you can access for free. 500 tweets is like 30 minutes of scrolling.” says Daniël.
With Threads, the seamless integration across Instagram has attracted millions of users, effortlessly integrating into Meta’s monolithic advertising ecosystem, ensuring a steady stream of ad revenue.
However brilliant Zuck’s advertising model is, the censorship and removal of all data that Meta doesn’t approve of, leaves some doubts of how ‘free’ the app truly is.
Undoubtedly, Musk and Zuck are the brilliant minds of our era. However, whether their decisions are driven by user interests or their personal rivalry remains a subject of debate.
Leaving this for contemplation, it is evident that Meta is striving to maintain its relevance, and Threads appears to be their strategic move towards attaining a technological monopoly. The question arises: Are you betting on Musk or Zuck?
