Threads social network is now European Union (EU). American digital giant Aimowner Facebook And instagramannounced this Thursday the launch of its new platform in community blog countries, five months after reaching the rest of the world.
This strategic move allows the company to expand into a market of 448 million citizens. “Welcome everyone,” said Meta’s co-founder and CEO. Mark Zuckerbergin a broadcast.
European users who want to access Threads will be able to create a profile and even link it to an account already active on Instagram, but will also be able to see content published on the new social network without the need to register. However, if they already have an Instagram account, they can only post content and interact with others.
delay in europe
Meta first launched Threads on July 4th. New one social network landed in over 100 countries including United States of Americabut not in the EU. Even access via private VPN networks is blocked. Part of this was due to tracking users and their behavior for advertising purposes, something prohibited by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This Thursday, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, attributed the delay to “the complexity of complying with some laws that will come into force next year.” By this he refers to a new law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). arrangement Antitrust law affecting tech giants that will come into force in March 2024. If they fail to comply, they face billions of dollars in fines.
The tight integration between Threads and Instagram raises questions about a possible violation of this legislation, which prohibits companies from mixing user data from different services. Meta has downloaded these links for the launch of its ‘app’ in Europe, but still the requirement to have an Instagram account to join the new social network may violate the measures against personal choice contained in the DMA.
Twitter Rival
Meta supported the creation of Threads as an alternative to X. The platform formerly known as this platform excitement reduced hours following controversial changes agreed by its owner businessman in recent months. Elon Musk. Zuckerberg wants to colonize part of the market by taking advantage of the fact that his wounded rival is losing advertisers, users and revenue.
However, Mosseri assured that Threads will not focus on “hard news” but will be a “friendly version” of Twitter where we can discuss light topics like music or sports.
Initially, Meta’s attack was aimed at very rapid success. In just five days, Threads managed to surpass 100 million registered users worldwide, a milestone that allowed it to dethrone ChatGPT as the fastest-growing app in history.
But as the weeks passed, this initial acceleration turned into a mirage. By the end of July, daily active users were down 82%, according to data from Sensor Tower, and as of Aug. 7, the social network retained only about 576,000 users. Apptopia, another analytical company, says that the ‘download rate’APPLICATION‘ has grown at a faster rate than X since September. Threads recorded 41 million registrations in the last three months Downloads compared to 27 million on the old Twitter.