Threads hits 350M users, but can it be a healthy platform?

We tried to address this in our initial no-code app launch by abstracting away the worries about API access and token billing, and indeed saw innovation from new quarters.

Threads is nearing X in mobile user numbers, according to data from Similarweb, a leading web analytics firm. The Twitter alternative from Meta is reportedly growing steadily and appears to be drawing users away from Elon Musk’s platform. A chart shared by Similarweb shows Threads steadily increasing its daily active users on both iOS and Android. The data suggests Threads has reached parity with X — around 130 million daily active users — and is on track to surpass it globally within days. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ecaAFp-d Source: Mashable #SocialMediaMarketing #DigitalMarketing #ContentCreation #DigitalGrowth #StartUpUK #MarketingExperts #MarketingUK #SmallBusiness #SME #SMEUK #UKBusinessSupport #SocialMedia #SmallBiz #Branding #SEO #Threads

Many people hate on TikTok, and I'm not sure if the criticism is justified, but the platform definitely has its fans. As of my last check, there were nearly 2 billion active TikTok users worldwide. In the latest Growth Case Studies, I examine how TikTok's For You feature has shaped its platform and enabled it to surpass incumbents like Twitter, posing a threat to others, such as Facebook and YouTube. At its core, For You is a dramatic improvement in the delivery of content on social media platforms. Users sign up, click a few boxes and can immediately engage with content. This is very different from the pre-TikTok era, where users needed to connect with or follow others before they could see content. This feature solves the "Cold Start" problem for software businesses. We need new users to see something so they can do something. For You utilises Bytedance's monolithic recommendation engine and its Large Memory Network architecture to determine how to deliver immediate content to new users. There's a lot to learn and consider here. Link to the case study in comments.

Back in 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 Billion - and the world laughed.🤯 Fast forward to today, Instagram is expected to generate $64 Billion in revenue this year alone. 📈 🔥 One of the smartest deals in tech history.🚀 #Instagram #Facebook #Meta #TechHistory #OnThisDay #SocialMedia #BillionDollarDeal #BusinessFacts #TechNews #HistoryMade #viral

In 2012, Instagram had no revenue, no business model, and just 13 employees. Yet Mark Zuckerberg was terrified because Instagram was winning where Facebook was weak: mobile. It drove users more than Facebook could. Instagram wasn’t just an app, it was a habit. Every interaction created dopamine hits that kept people coming back. For younger users, Facebook was starting to feel like the past. Instagram felt like the future fast, simple, and designed for phones. That shift was dangerous for Facebook. Because if users moved their attention to Instagram, Facebook’s dominance would collapse. And Zuckerberg knew it. So he bought it for $1 Billion before it crushed him. The story of how Zuck crushed the competition, and made his brand relevant overnight. Instagram started in 2010 as a small idea: make it simple to capture and share photos instantly. They raised $500K in seed funding, which valued them at just $5M. But here’s the twist: unlike most startups whi chase revenue early. Instagram did the opposite. They ignored monetization and put every ounce of focus on growth. Growth First, Money Later Instagram had a simple North Star metric: users. The logic was clear: If enough people get hooked, money will follow. And the numbers proved them right: • In 2 months → 1M users • 6 months → 5M users • By late 2011 → 10M users That kind of exponential growth was rare. And what’s more impressive? Users weren’t just signing up. They were staying on the app for hours every day. At the same time, Facebook was in trouble. The world was shifting from desktop to mobile, and Facebook’s experience on phones was clunky. Instagram, however, was built mobile-first. It was frictionless, fast, and addictive. This scared Mark Zuckerberg. Because Facebook’s dominance rested on one thing: owning attention. And Instagram was stealing it especially from younger users. Zuckerberg wasn’t the only one who noticed. Google and Twitter also saw Instagram’s potential. By April 2012, Instagram had: • 30M+ users • Multiple suitors • Still $0 in revenue They had engineered the ultimate “fear of missing out” situation. Whoever bought Instagram would control the future of social on mobile. Zuckerberg knew he couldn’t risk losing. So he moved fast. He personally reached out to Instagram’s founders. Within days, he offered $1 Billion in cash and stock. The valuation? Way above Instagram’s worth at the time. But Zuckerberg understood something most people miss: You don’t buy companies for what they’re worth today. You buy them for the threats they eliminate tomorrow. So Zuck Triggered the $1 Billion deal. Critics said its the most expensive overbuy of a company . 👉 The Big Takeaway: Mark’s genius wasn’t in spending $1B. It was in seeing what Instagram could become, not what it was. He teaches us that: Revenue is important, but relevance comes first. Protecting your future sometimes costs more than protecting your present.

I’ve been thinking lately about how every era of social media revealed something deeper about what people were really seeking. 💬 Twitter worked because people wanted to talk and argue. The whole platform ran on real-time conversation. That's why it became the default home for journalists, tech folks, anyone who basically lived online and loved a good conversation or debate. 👥 Facebook grew through friends and family. It was a proof that network effects and personal connections drive adoption, even if not everyone cared about party or vacation photos. 📸 Instagram tapped into the universal appeal of photos. You didn’t need to write, explain, or debate. Just show. 📽️ TikTok is where things got interesting though. It basically said forget about who posted the content. What matters is whether you're entertained when you open the app. The algorithm became more important than your social graph. That was a fundamental shift. When you look at the pattern, there's a clear progression: Connection → Expression → Entertainment. So what's next? What comes after entertainment? That's the question I keep coming back to. Here's what I'm noticing: there's no shortage of content anymore. AI is making sure of that. But meaning feels harder to find. And I think that's why people are moving into smaller spaces. Private Slack groups. Discord servers. WhatsApp communities. Places that actually feel human. Media companies keep chasing scale and reach. But maybe the real opportunity is going the other direction. Building something people actually want to come back to because it means something. Creating depth instead of just more noise. Connection was supposed to be what social media was about. Turns out it might be what comes after social media too.

I notice it, you've noticed it, Instagram is great at “copying” Many call Meta a copycat. But, they are honestly just resourceful. They’ve built a machine that incubates hundreds of clone ideas internally. Small pods testing different takes on whatever’s working in the market. Only a handful ever make it public: Stories (from Snapchat), Reels (from TikTok), Threads (from X), and now the Friends Map, Notes, and repost features (from BeReal, Twitter, and TikTok again). Most companies copy once and hope it lands. Meta copies hundreds of times, measures which behaviors actually stick, and then integrates the winners directly into products that already reach billions. It is originality melded in with cloning: --> They study why users love something elsewhere. --> Rebuild it cleaner, faster, and within a network people already use daily. --> Give it one twist so it feels native to Instagram’s culture. Turns out that they end up absorbing the mindshare of other companies. They seem to be one punch behind and ahead at the same time. That’s the lesson for every company. Typically it is quite hard to do, but stay in the know, see what your ICP wants, what they like, where YOU are losing, and then build based on that. Stay customer obsessed. 😄 😄However, ACG makes it easy for you to STAY IN THE KNOW. If you want 7000+ Gen-Z perspectives on any question you have about that generation, drop a comment down below.

"Why did Facebook build Stories when everyone already hated Stories?" In 2016, Snapchat Stories were exploding with young users. Instagram copied them. Then Facebook added Stories. Then WhatsApp. Then Messenger. Critics said it was desperate copying. Users said they didn't want Stories in every app. But Facebook wasn't thinking about first-order effects (user complaints). They were thinking second-order. First-order thinking: Will users like this feature? Second-order thinking: What happens when users get used to this feature? The second-order insight: Stories trained users to post more frequently with less perfection anxiety. No permanent record = more sharing. More sharing = more content. More content = more engagement. More engagement = more ad inventory. One feature change created a cascade of behavioral changes that fundamentally increased how much content flowed through Facebook's apps. This is Second-Order Thinking. Asking not just "what happens immediately" but "what happens next, and what happens after that?" Most founders stop at first-order effects: Will users like this? Will it improve the metric we're tracking? But the best product decisions come from thinking through the chain of consequences. Try this: For your next product decision, ask "If we build this, what will users do differently? And when they do that differently, what happens next?" The second and third-order effects often matter more than the immediate impact. What product decision are you thinking through second-order effects on right now?

Snapchat’s decision mirrors a growing trend among tech companies monetizing once-free features. The platform now joins others like X, formerly Twitter, which began charging for verification and premium access in 2022.

Late - Social Media API for Developers & Agencies Stop managing 10 different APIs One REST API to post on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Threads, Reddit, Pinterest, and Bluesky. Built for developers. Loved by agencies. Trusted by 6,325 users. https://lnkd.in/d9NTFaqF #api #socialmedia #tiktok #instagram #x #reddit #youtube #pinterest