Analysts Highlight Twitter’s Recent Updates as User-Disruptive and Opportunities for Competing Platforms
Following the removal of the Teams feature from Twitter, users have experienced reported outages and a series of changes, resulting in increased advertisements and the appearance of blocked and muted accounts on their Twitter feeds. As a result, some users have begun migrating to third-party apps, as Twitter now requires verification within 30 days to access TweetDeck. Industry experts believe this move could give an advantage to rival platforms.
Several users expressed their dissatisfaction with Twitter’s recent changes. They criticized the abundance of ads and the decision to lock TweetDeck behind a paywall, as well as the limitations on the number of tweets they can read unless they pay. Users also complained about being forced to view accounts they had previously blocked.
The changes on Twitter have impacted the work of enterprise technology platforms, as professionals now have to switch screens and use third-party tools for analysis and tracking. The Managing Director of Edelman Digital, Kunal Arora, mentioned the impact on their work. Similarly, Akshay Gurnani, co-founder and CEO of Delhi-based creative media agency Schbang, believes that the verification criteria will cause many brands and users to move away from Twitter.
Experts are analyzing the effects of the changes to TweetDeck on users and businesses. Akhilesh Shukla, CEO of Messy Desk Media, the parent company of enterprise technology platform TechShots, stated that monetizing TweetDeck could reduce spam accounts and unnecessary trends but could also change how corporates and political organizations control trends, affecting content consumption. On the other hand, Riyaz Ahmed, project head at Mumbai-based advertising agency Campaign Masters, believes that introducing ads or paid analytics on TweetDeck could benefit businesses by reaching more people.
In addition, some users reported being able to access tweets on the web without logging in, but this feature was recently rolled back. This development coincided with the launch of Meta Threads. Prabhu Ram, head of Industry Intelligence Group at marketing consultancy CyberMedia Research, commented on the recent modifications by Twitter, stating that they have unsettled some users and created opportunities for new competitors. Siddharth Hedge, founder and Managing Director of Mumbai-based digital marketing agency Ethinos, believes Twitter is experimenting with different ways of monetization but has not been as successful as Meta, Google, Snap, and LinkedIn.
Meta’s Threads, the app developed by Facebook’s parent company, is seen as a strong rival to Twitter. Within the first seven hours of launch, Threads gained over 10 million sign-ups, according to Zuckerberg’s verified Threads account. Users can post up to 500 characters and share links, photos, and videos for up to 5 minutes. Prabhu Ram mentioned that Threads has the potential to rival Twitter in terms of audience size, given its ready user base from Instagram. Advertising agency TBWAndia’s executive director, Ranjeev Vij, added that many Gen Z users prioritize Instagram, and therefore, Threads may appeal to them.
However, some Threads users complained about slow posting and the absence of options to save or share posts. Users also highlighted the inconvenience of needing to delete their Instagram account to leave the Threads platform. A Meta spokesperson acknowledged this issue and stated that they are working on allowing users to delete their Threads profile separately from their Instagram account. In the meantime, users can deactivate their Threads profile whenever they wish.
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