![]() That Threads apparently cannot (yet) comply with rules designed to protect competition underscores uncertainty about the app’s potential competitive impact. The DMA was passed specifically to deal with the antitrust concerns raised by large tech platforms. Threads won’t be launching in the EU for now, he said, because of “complexities with complying with some of the laws coming into effect next year” - a statement The Verge suggested was a reference to the DMA. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri appeared to acknowledge those issues this week in an interview with The Verge. Another restriction forbids requiring users to sign up for one platform as a condition of using another. Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), “digital gatekeepers” - a term that’s expected to cover Meta and/or its subsidiaries - will be prohibited from combining a user’s data from multiple platforms without consent, Reyna said. Twitter threatens to sue Meta after rival app Threads gains traction ![]() “From a competition perspective this can be problematic because Meta can use it to leverage its market power and raise barriers to entry, as other rivals would not have the customer base Meta has via Instagram,” said Agustin Reyna, director of legal and economic affairs at the Brussels-based consumer advocacy organization BEUC. That Threads appeared to clear that hurdle easily, Ohanian said, makes him “bullish” on the new app.īut that same innovation that made signing up so many users so quickly may raise competition concerns, particularly in Europe where new antitrust rules for digital platforms are set to go into effect in a matter of months. Thanks to the Instagram integration, “that biggest problem, the chicken-egg problem, has been solved from the jump,” Reddit co-founder and venture investor Alexis Ohanian said in a video Thursday (posted, naturally, on Threads). That frictionless experience has allowed Threads to leapfrog what’s known in the industry as the “cold start” problem, in which a new platform struggles to gain new users because there are no other users there to attract them. It’s optional, but is easy to accept, and it takes a conscious decision to decline.īy promoting Threads through Instagram, and by sharing Instagram user data with Threads to let people instantly recreate their social networks, Meta has significantly greased the onboarding process. When new users sign up for Threads, which they do using an Instagram account, the app prompts them to follow all of their existing Instagram contacts with a single tap. Instagram has more than two billion users, far more than the 238 million users Twitter reported having in the months before Musk took over. The overnight success of Threads is a testament both to the dissatisfaction with Musk’s ownership of Twitter and to the unique power and reach of one of Meta’s most important properties: Instagram. Threads’ blockbuster launch this week highlights the uncomfortable reality of the modern digital economy: To potentially beat some of the biggest players in the industry, you might have to be a giant yourself. Now more than any of them, Meta seems best positioned to claim the crown. As Twitter faltered under Musk, though, a cottage industry emerged of smaller apps trying to capture some of its magic. Twitter had always been much smaller than Meta’s platforms, but it had an outsized influence in tech, media and politics. “It’s a real problem for society when a few dozen people and companies own every single thing so that no alternative paradigms can exist that they don’t co-opt from the cradle,” replied another. “The prospect of total monopoly by Meta, yikes,” wrote one user. With Twitter in chaos, Mark Zuckerberg looks to pounce Mark Zuckerberg arrives for a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. ![]()
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