I still feel that an enormous amount of why threads shows up in data analytics is because Instagram just added it on and made an account for everyone.

It wasn't adopted, it was falsely created.

I'd go even further to say that it isn't a social network, it's an add-on to another social network.

It reminds me of google plus. Technically better than the existing top dog, but the forced migration and trying to bootstrap with a huge but only semi involved userbase let it fizzle soon after the start.

Has there ever been a successful case of bootstrapping a new social media product with an existing userbase? Like not just added features or merging two together.

No they don’t. That’s untrue. The fact that so many replies are speaking as if it’s true is quite telling. Instagram continually pesters me to create a Threads account, but doesn’t just “make one for me”. Threads’ user growth would look very very different if this were true. It’s another app. Instagram won’t even let you expand one of the stupid Threads posts it shows you until you install the app.

For the most part the types of people who find Instagram interesting (and would have a Threads account created automatically) are simply not the audience for a tool like Bluesky (or Twitter).

Threads is so confusing. I have no idea who's replying to who when I click into a discussion.

100%.

i wouldn’t say falsely created, but i would say “padded statistics”

threads is beholden to KPIs unlike every other activity pub implementation

their team obviously wants to be successful to continue developing against activity pub

their metrics are akin to a company bragging about how much software they’ve written with the assistance of AI

threads was able to approximate how many instagram users wished they had twitter in the same way intellisense is able to provide auto complete for dot notation; as a magician, i spot the misdirection for investors

That's false. I've tried their app once and they certainly did not made an account automatically.

I agree. But then a big premise of Bluesky (hence AT Proto) is that it is not centralised however when we say BlueSky we just mean Bluesky i.e https://bsky.app and that is, frankly, very concerning. It might not sustain.

While Threads is just forced Instagram users, bsky is a decentralised social network which is not decentralised. Comparing bsky with Threads is anything but a compliment.

Same thing happened to TikTok and Lemon8 recently, though the move had to do more with US banning.

You know, they stopped Amazon from buying iRobot because of I guess unfair robot vacuum competition (why does that sound hilarious?). It's almost luck that Threads isn't that successful, because then they'd have to deal with monopoly concerns. At least now they can just say it's a shitty twitter knock off, don't bother us.

> Instagram just added it on and made an account for everyone.

They didn't.

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