After milking the value of Facebook, Instagram, and perhaps WhatsApp, Meta, the world’s largest social media company, has confirmed it is working on a Twitter rival that will intensify competition in the micro-blogging space.
Last Friday, Meta said it is working on a text-sharing app (without disclosing the proposed name), which will function as a standalone, decentralized social network for sharing text updates. Apart from the competitive intent of the new Twitter rival, Meta’s incursion into the micro-blogging space, this development is coming at a momentous time for Twitter, the biggest player in the category. Apart from its financial struggles, Elon Musk, the company’s recent owner, has been tweaking the structure and business model of Twitter so as to shore up its leadership in the category.
Late last year, Mastodon, perhaps the first rival that harped on decentralization and interoperability, gained relative popularity. However, its lack of simplicity and reach made it a fringe player posing an insignificant threat to Twitter’s domination. However, Meta has the reach, particularly because its new Twitter rival could easily enable users to share updates to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram without needing Twitter to gain traction. Also, with the economies of scale, Meta might not struggle to push its text-sharing and even monetized it.
While it’s left to be seen, the revenue model Meta will adopt, advertising could be its mainstay given the company’s track record. The recent plan to introduce a subscription for verification and further perks on Instagram might be too early to adopt for the new app if Twitter’s experience with a similar approach is considered.
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