Internet - Report: Meta to launch Threads in the EU in December
According to a newspaper report, the Facebook group Meta plans to finally launch its short message service Threads in the EU in December. There will also be an option to use Threads just to read posts without being able to write your own posts, wrote the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, citing informed sources. The service is an alternative to Elon Musk's online platform X (formerly Twitter).
Meta left out the European Union when it launched Threads in July, citing legal uncertainties with regard to "new digital laws". According to observers, this may have referred to the dual package of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) - and the automatic linking of user data from Instagram and Threads could potentially cause problems for Meta.
Since Musk bought the short message service Twitter and renamed it X, the online platform's user numbers have been falling, according to market researchers. Several competitors see an opportunity to build on Twitter's former importance with alternatives. Threads is considered a particularly strong candidate because the service is based on Meta's photo and video platform Instagram, which already has hundreds of millions of connected users.
Threads has almost 100 million users who are active at least once a month, said Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in October. After its launch in July, Threads cracked the 100 million sign-ups mark within a few days - but user activity then fell again. Zuckerberg remained convinced that Threads could become a service with one billion users in a few years. Back in October, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri held out the prospect that Threads could eventually become available in the EU in a few months.
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- Despite Meta's initial absence in Europe with Threads due to legal uncertainities, the Meta-owned short message service is expected to debut in the EU by December, providing an alternative to platforms like Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter).
- The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta is planning to introduce a feature in Threads that allows users to read posts without the ability to write their own, which could potentially attract more users looking for a different approach.
- Prior to Meta's entry into the EU market, Tesla CEO Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and subsequent renaming to X has led to a decrease in the platform's user numbers, as reported by market researchers.
- Threads, as a service built on Meta's photo and video platform Instagram, has already amassed a significant user base of over 100 million active users per month, according to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
- With Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri indicating that Threads could potentially become available in the EU within a few months, some competitors are eying the opportunity to capitalize on Twitter's previous significance and provide alternatives to the declining user numbers on the now-X platform.
- The rollout of Threads in the EU and increasingly intense competition in the short news service sector alike could forever change the landscape of social media communication on the continent and beyond, with a significant impact on the Internet's user engagement.
Source: www.stern.de
