Thread, Dead, No Redemption

Meta’s Threads launches in the EU, but it won’t turn the needle

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This article was originally published on my Substack, Trend Mill.

With Meta’s Threads app arriving in the EU (after relaxing some of its mandatory ties to Instagram to skirt stricter privacy laws), it widens its potential market by over half a billion people.

But will it matter in the battle for text-based social media dominance?

No.

Despite the countless wobbles, erratic leadership and an advertiser exodus, X is still standing — and still dwarfing the user numbers and social significance of Threads. Today’s launch will bring a nice bump and a wave of good press. But it won’t stop the continued unraveling of Threads.

It had all started so well.

When it launched, Meta’s Threads app became the fastest-growing consumer application in history when it hit the 100 million user mark in the blink of an eye. Even a diehard Meta-cynic like myself couldn’t help but be impressed with the rollout. And while I was less impressed with the product — I stopped using it after a few weeks — I thought it was only a matter of time before Threads surpassed the user numbers of X. I even wrote as much:

It’s only a matter of time before…