It’s not just Threads—Mark Zuckerberg has a long history of copycat apps and features

Mark Zuckerberg isn't peculiarly shy astir copying a bully thought erstwhile helium sees one. 

From cribbing Snapchat's stories diagnostic to cloning TikTok successful the signifier of Instagram Reels, the Facebook co-founder has a agelong and well-documented past of being a copycat. 

Zuckerberg's latest not-quite-innovation comes successful the signifier of Threads, an Instagram-based Twitter competitor. 

News archetypal emerged that Instagram genitor institution Meta was moving connected a Twitter rival past month, with the revelation starring Twitter proprietor Elon Musk to challenge Zuckerberg to a "cage match."

Threads is present live, with Zuckerberg boasting that it has already surpassed 30 cardinal signups successful little than a time — acknowledgment successful portion to the easiness of setting up a profile utilizing an existing Instagram account. 

In his archetypal fewer posts connected the fledgling app, Zuckerberg has expressed hopes of getting Threads "on a wide way to 1 cardinal people," adding that "Twitter has had the accidental to bash this but hasn't nailed it." 

Though Zuckerberg has said that the Threads squad is "focusing connected kindness and making this a affable place," helium hasn't pretended that Threads is precise antithetic from the level it is aping. 

Indeed, Zuckerberg adjacent logged into his ain Twitter account, which has been dormant since January 2012, to stock the fashionable pointing Spider-Man meme successful a seeming acknowledgment of however akin the 2 platforms truly are. 

Musk, meanwhile, replied with a laughing emoji to a Tweet saying that Threads was a consecutive copy-and-paste of Twitter.

"They're not gathering thing with this platform," Wedbush Securities expert Dan Ives says of Meta. "It's conscionable a level that's looking to pat into a monolithic Instagram instal basal and instrumentality the vexation and hatred toward Musk and Twitter, vessel it and look to summation marketplace share." 

Whether oregon not Threads tin vie with Twitter remains to beryllium seen. For each copycat merchandise that Zuckerberg has rolled retired implicit the years to large success, others person failed to summation traction. 

"That's truly been the DNA of Zuckerberg and Facebook," Ives tells Make It. "Ultimately, it's conscionable Zuckerberg trying to further monetize the instal basal disconnected of different ideas that person worked wrong societal media." 

Other rivals including Mastodon and Bluesky have yet to unseat Twitter contempt Musk's tumultuous ownership of the app. 

"Despite each the frustration," Ives says, "many radical commencement their time with coffee, brushing their teeth and looking astatine Twitter." 

Here are immoderate notable copycat apps and features rolled retired nether Zuckerberg's leadership. 

Facebook began investigating its Nextdoor clone, dubbed Neighborhoods, successful the US and Canada backmost successful 2020. The venture, which was promoted arsenic "a dedicated abstraction wrong the Facebook app designed to assistance you link with your neighbors" and "participate successful your section community" was shuttered past year.

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