Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter in late October 2022, several networks competing with the blue bird have sprung up, most recently Threads, an offshoot of Meta (Facebook, Instagram) that has attracted more than 30 million fewer subscribers. 24 hours
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Given the sometimes unpredictable declarations and changes initiated by the billionaire, several million people have actually decided to migrate to other platforms.
However, the adventure is sometimes less pleasant for internet users, since they now have an additional alternative at their disposal.
Threads, Zuckerberg’s network
Threads is considered Instagram’s “written conversation app” and will most likely fuel the rivalry between billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
This newcomer to the web looks like a stripped down version of Twitter. Its users can like, comment and share posts and use the same profile as their Instagram account. Unlike Twitter, there are no keywords and – at least for now – it’s not possible to filter content with a Tweetdeck-type device.
Threads’ compatibility project with other Twitter rivals like Mastodon has been shelved but not abandoned.
The application was launched in 100 countries at 23:00 GMT on Wednesday and had 30 million accounts just after 15:00 GMT on Thursday.
Mastodon, the community network
Before the thunderous and controversial Bluebird takeover, Mastodon was unknown to the general public and quickly experienced a surge in popularity.
Created in 2016 by German developer Eugen Rochko, the site presents itself as a “free and open-source decentralized social network” without any advertising and in which the protection of private data is untouchable.
As with Twitter, Internet users can post short messages, but each newcomer has To on a server according to their areas of interest.
There are several thousand of these independent servers, so-called instances, a kind of community around a topic that sets its own rules.
However, some didn’t like the experience because the platform wasn’t intuitive, creating an account was difficult, or the response time of the service was poor.
Mr Rochko had said ten days after Elon Musk effectively acquired Twitter that Mastodon had surpassed one million monthly active users, but that remained a far cry from the approximately 200 million daily Twitter users.
Bluesky, the baby bird of the co-founder of Twitter
Launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, this network is hugely popular in Silicon Valley but is still in development and is by invitation only, a highly coveted ticket at the moment.
The company told CNBC that it saw a record number of posts on Saturday after Elon Musk announced it would temporarily cap the number of posts Twitter users can read each day.
Bluesky is visually and practically similar to Twitter because its designers don’t want defectors to feel out of place.
This platform was developed in 2019 on the fringes of Twitter, initially with the aim of creating a decentralized version where internet users – and not society – would have more control over their personal data and over the moderation process.
It also uses a device called AT protocol to maintain identity across multiple platforms.
According to its website, Bluesky had surpassed 50,000 subscribers by the end of April. A representative told CNBC that more than 58,000 people logged on over the weekend.
substack notes
In retaliation, Elon Musk blocked links and search results for Substack earlier this year after the author blogging site launched Substack Notes.
The latter allows authors like Twitter to post short messages with links and images while trying to direct users to paid content.
The billionaire has since reversed his decision, emphasizing how Twitter can help its users monetize their content.
Substack Notes has been criticized for its still flawed content moderation system. Revenue comes from the revenue generated by authors’ pages, not from the number of views or advertising.
In development or established
There are other microblog platforms or written discussions dedicated to particular affinities.
Networks such as Gab, Parler and Truth Social – a platform launched by former US President Donald Trump – presented themselves as conservative alternatives to Twitter even before Twitter was taken over.
Discord is primarily used in the video gaming world, with chat rooms being accessible by invitation.
In the register of more generalist platforms, there’s the young shoot T2 (name used to evoke Twitter 2) founded by former Twitter and Google employees, which is approaching Bluesky and the Blue Bird Network in the test phase, but remains , for the time being confidential.