Will Meta’s Threads unwind Twitter in India? Opinions vary

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Twitter rival, Threads. The Facebook and WhatsApp parent is positioning the app as an extension of its Instagram platform, though it is a standalone application with features that are similar to Twitter. Experts ET spoke with said the app may dent Twitter’s user base in India, especially among the young people.

The app had over 10 million downloads within the first seven hours of the launch. India is the largest market for the Meta apps of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram and analysts said this would give a solid head start to Threads in this market. They however also warned of the privacy concerns that could come with the app that has not been allowed to operate in the European Union.

Some experts also said Threads could effectively kill homegrown players like Koo, which has positioned itself as a Twitter rival. Many believe that institutions, governments and public figures — who are very strong on Twitter — would take longer to warm up to Threads and that Twitter, being the established digital townsquare, certainly had an edge. While the downloads are impressive, some raised questions over whether Threads would be able to have the same social and political impact that Twitter does.

They are also awaiting more details about the content moderation policy it would adopt. «Twitter has a fairly small presence in India compared to other social media apps and has not made significant headway in the country,» Mohit Rana, Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants told ET. «With India being the largest market for Meta and their ability to integrate existing apps with Threads, I do think that Meta has a very good chance with Threads in the Indian market.