by ne
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, sees the inevitable.
If paying brands stay off the platform, denying what used to be Twitter’s pulse of ad revenue, X is toast. Musk himself has accepted as much. But as dangerous as the platform is for advertisers and degrading the experience for users, X is still standing at the end of 2023.
For a handful of X’s alternatives, Musk’s recent missteps have been their opportunities. If this was the year X was hanged, this was the year of their replacement.
This summer, in a surprise release, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta (META) Revealed its text-based Threads rival Twitter. The app burst onto the scene just as Twitter was making a mistake. Musk had received an update that temporarily limited the number of posts Twitter users could see in one day. Users bristled at the restrictions, adding to the frenzy that defined Musk’s takeover.
Further changes to the site, such as removing journalists’ verification badges and increasing the posts of users who pay for premium services, worsened its public standing after it had already been damaged by chaotic mass copying and write-off valuations.
Zuckerberg timed the arrival of Threads at the height of Twitter’s discontent. Within hours the app claimed at least 10 million sign-ups.
But while Threads has the support and built-in user network of a tech giant with a nearly trillion-dollar market cap, other microblogging platforms have caught on and drawn their own threaded user bases as well.
Such alternatives are not billing themselves as direct replacements.
“There has to be a point where people realize there won’t be another Twitter,” said Noam Bardin, CEO and founder of Post, the new social platform, which includes 550,000 registered users. Although some new entrants are trying to recreate the idiosyncrasies behind the success of the old Twitter, Bardin said that this type of app cloning will not work “if you are just another Twitter without the content.”
Post’s way of differentiating itself depends in part on an emphasis on news, which other players such as Meta have discouraged, ceding ground to the front. The platform allows users to purchase individual articles from news providers and read stories from outlets within the same interface.
Bardin points to TikTok’s success as a model for the Post. Rather than trying to clone YouTube, TikTok has continued to surface entertaining content that satisfies the tastes of its users without forcing them to find and follow other accounts or build a curated feed using social signals. It was the result unlimited clip stream that is personalized for users. For Bardin, TikTok took a slice of the owner’s service and ran with it. That’s a path for Post, too.
Bardin also emphasized that Post’s business model of partnering with news outlets and publishers rather than relying on impression-based ad revenue incentivizes the company in ways that don’t rely on the more toxic aspects of social media, like to always maintain pressure. users are psychologically trapped on the platform.
“We don’t want you to scroll for five hours,” he said. “We make the same money when you read three articles.”
Bluesky, which has 2.6 million users and is yet to be invited, claims its own niche. It aims to offer a more community and transparent alternative to X that is less susceptible to control by a single entity.
Originally an initiative within Twitter to develop an open source social network, Bluesky is now a public benefit company. Although it is similar to old Twitter, the company has plans for a completely decentralized system that would allow the general public to run their own apps, using Bluesky as a kind of digital infrastructure. Currently, the flagship app Bluesky is giving home to many ex-Twitter users for public chat.
“The changes that have come to Twitter really inadvertently show why it’s important for us to be there,” said CEO Jay Graber.
“We’re really trying to build something that’s going to be resilient to a single person or a single company changing the infrastructure on which people communicate very significantly.”
Then there’s Mastodon, an open-source alternative to Twitter that was among the first social networks to draw in users fleeing from Musk’s platform. Although its monthly active users have plateaued this year, there are efforts to continue its early momentum. A range of third-party clients have released polished apps that make using the service more intuitive.
I hesitate to spend more time on other social networks even as I have been successful in them. At first, leaving X can be overwhelming in the same way that starting a new video game or hobby can. You do not know what you are doing. The screens look weird. When does it get fun? What is skeet?
It’s hard to get that feeling for a beginner when X is sitting there, even when it’s much worse – full of cryptic spam, hostile to the news that consumes it, and more lacking in the best accounts with me not posting as much or at all. . I know I’m hung up on X.
I’m lurking more on LinkedIn and Reddit, even when newer, attract other options right in front of me.
As a friend recently texted me about Bluesky, “Get in here, the water’s hot.”
Ryan Broderick, web culture writer and author of the Garbage Day newsletter, said we have little historical precedent to think of Twitter dying. But there are examples to draw from.
“The big question mark is what kind of crisis is X in right now?” he said, sketching three paths. The first thing many people immediately jump to is: Myspace, complete shutdown. The second thing is similar to what happened to YouTube during the advertising boycotts about brand safety. Eventually the announcers returned, and the platform bounced back. The third case Broderick noted was Tumblr, which suffered from a large user base but continued with a shrinking user base.
X will probably go away and get smaller and smaller, Broderick said. “I don’t think X will be gone one day.”
That depends on Musk and what X’s competitors decide. Zuckerberg, for his part, has high ambitions for Threads, even as the platform has de-emphasized news, a key element of old chaotic magic. Twitter. During Meta’s latest earnings call, Zuckerberg said Threads has nearly 100 million monthly active users. He said that number has reached a level of 10 times within a few years. Last week Threads opened up to users in the European Union.
In the days following the October 7 Hamas attack and subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, X seemed to be flashing some of its old arresting power as a way to break news and a gateway into major world events. At the same time, its limitations have been laid out: the amplification of attention mongers, a flood of offensive and bigoted posts, and design choices that make it harder for people to find reliable news sources. When the drama of current events draws an audience in, X becomes an irresistible destination. It is also a very flawed one. That’s what makes the race to replace or bypass it so interesting and unbelievable.
Broderick said he followed the events on both Threads and X, describing the experience of being on Musk’s platform as exhausting and terrifying without the proper screening. “But I had a better understanding of the ticking clock of the conflict on X,” he said. “The engine is still there. It’s still a pretty good app.”
Hamza Shaban is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering markets and the economy. Follow Hamza on Twitter @hshaban.
Click here for the latest technology news that will impact the stock market.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
