Why the early success of Threads may crash into reality

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

If this sounds like Instagram's new Threads app and its push against its rival Twitter, think again. The year was 2011 and Google had just rolled out a social network called Google+, which was aimed as its «Facebook killer.» Google thrust the new site in front of many of its users who relied on its search and other products, expanding Google+ to more than 90 million users within the first year. But by 2018, Google+ was relegated to the ash heap of history.

Despite the internet search giant's enormous audience, its social network failed to catch on as people continued flocking to Facebook — and later to Instagram and other social apps. In the history of Silicon Valley, big tech companies have often become even bigger tech companies by using their scale as a built-in advantage. But as Google+ shows, bigness alone is no guarantee of winning the fickle and faddish social media market.

This is the challenge that Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, now faces as he tries to dislodge Twitter and make Threads the prime app for real-time, public conversations. If tech history is any guide, size and scale are solid footholds — but ultimately can only go so far. What comes next is much harder.

Zuckerberg needs people to be able to find friends and influencers on Threads in the serendipitous and sometimes weird ways that Twitter managed to accomplish. He needs to make sure that Threads isn't filled with spam and grifters. He needs people to be patient about app updates that are in the works.