Twitter vs. Threads = Musk vs. Zuckerberg

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Today’s Highlights:

• 📱Twitter vs. Threads = Musk vs. Zuckerberg🤼‍♂️

• 💰Funding News: Realtime Robotics Raises $9.5M🤖

Twitter vs. Threads, A Social Media Cage Match Between Tech Giants

Whether we like it or not, social media is all around us and almost impossible to steer clear of. Though initially created for online socialization, social media has become a place often used by businesses, artists, or any individuals that need to market their products or services.

In a lot of ways, social media has become essential in this modern life, and it seems more of them are being made every day. We can add one more to the list, and that’s Meta’s Threads.

Threads

Threads is a social media app available on the Apple App Store and Google Play that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated to be Instagram’s “text-based conversation app.” Launched on July 5th, 2023, Threads managed to surpass 5 million signs up in the first four hours, and over 100 million Threads accounts have already been made in under a week.

In order to create a Threads account, users would have to connect their Instagram accounts. Linking the accounts would give users the same username, profile picture, and display name, allowing some customization later on.

Threads gives you the option to choose which accounts you follow on Instagram to carry over to Threads without having to painstakingly search for them one by one. One downside that has made Instagram users refrain from using Threads, however, is the inability to delete their Threads account without deleting the linked Instagram account.

Threads, similar to Instagram, enables you to filter out hidden words and unfollow, block, restrict, or report a profile. Any accounts you’ve blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on Threads as well.

Focusing mainly on text-based conversations, the app allows users to publish posts that are up to 500 characters long. With Zuckerberg’s intent of making Threads a community where users can connect with others who share the same interests and a place where creators can build a loyal following and share their ideas, Threads enables its users to share links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in duration.

At the moment, however, some features that are deemed to be critical, such as direct/private messaging, hashtags, and the ability to search specific text or phrases are not yet available on Threads. Threads is also currently only accessible via mobile apps and do not have a desktop website yet.

Twitter’s Downfall

Threads have been deemed to share a similarity to Twitter, as they both operate by giving users the ability to reply, repost, and like other users’ threads. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the reason behind Threads’ creation is actually solely to compete with Twitter since it has gone through a few changes deemed controversial following Tesla CEO Elon Musk's acquisition last November.

Just recently, Twitter imposed a “rate limit” which limited the number of Tweets users can view per day, with the intent to deal with “extreme levels of data scraping” and “system manipulation”.

Despite Musk’s claims, users quickly perceived this limitation as Musk’s way of monetizing what was supposed to be “public” content. This led to the disapproval of numerous users and drove them to use other platforms, such as BlueSky, a decentralized social messaging app backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and Mastodon, a microblogging app similar to Twitter.

Zuckerberg’s ReMark

Upon Threads’ release, Musk reacted far from nicely. From cheating allegations to proposals of a dick-measuring contest, Musk seems to have plans to sue and has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Zuckerberg.

Talks of a “cage match” between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have circled around Twitter in the past couple of weeks. If it’s to be done, it seems the two tech giants might now meet not just in the cage, but also in court.

This hasn’t stopped Zuckerberg from further improving Threads, though. The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has stated that Threads will someday become a decentralized social media app with the support of ActivityPub, allowing Threads to become an open social networking protocol.

The question worth posing is, has Musk truly caused Twitter’s irreparable downfall, leading Zuckerberg to the win, or is the soaring number of Threads users simply a temporary reaction that will soon die down?

Funding News

Realtime Robotics Raises $9.5M

Realtime Robotics, a Boston-based company focusing on robot and vehicle automation, has been raising steady funding since 2021, beginning their series A funding with $31 million, followed by additional funding of $14.4 million last September, and $9.5 million this week from Shinhan GIB and Kyobo Life Insurance.

Engrossing itself in the manufacturing space, Realtime recently unveiled RapidPlan, a software that assists manufacturers in deploying robots. Providing simulation, control, task management, and programming, the software can save weeks to months of automation setup.

By applying RapidPlan in the industrial setting, Realtime CEO Peter Howard believes that the process of programming, deployment, and robot control can be less time-consuming, optimized, and done efficiently.

Realtime will utilize the total of $54 million collected for scaling and further research and development on its existing and future innovations. Realtime plans to distribute its products and services to global end users and line builders across the automotive and automated warehouse industries.

With the intent to make use of its funding for deployment as well, Realtime is looking to hire robot control engineers, product design engineers, and a senior robotics software engineer.

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