Publications
Publications
- July 13, 2023
- Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
Threads Foreshadows a Big—and Surprising—Shift in Social Media
By: Scott Duke Kominers and Liang Wu
Abstract
Threads, Meta’s Twitter competitor, has become the fastest downloaded app in history. One of the reasons for this is because it allows users to port over their profiles and follows from the already popular social media platform Instagram, also owned by Meta—a feature that may soon extend to open social media protocol Activity Hub. In doing so, Threads suggests that an alternative approach to social media, in which user data is portable, interoperable, and not controlled by the platform, may be going mainstream.
Keywords
Decentralization; Twitter; Facebook; Instagram; Crypto Economy; Blockchain; Network; Industrial Organization; Competition; Open Innovation; Open Platforms; Open Source Innovation; Social Networks; Social Media; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry
Citation
Kominers, Scott Duke, and Liang Wu. "Threads Foreshadows a Big—and Surprising—Shift in Social Media." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (July 13, 2023).