Well, it's clear. Australia was ready for a Twitter alternative, but Threads hasn't really hooked us. At least not yet, anyway.
All we've done as a nation is logged in, possibly a tad disgruntled by the Insta account requirement, then bailed out. I mean look what's trending on Google trends this week: 'How to delete threads account' is up 200%, alongside the phrase 'deactivate'.
The explosive growth of Threads hasn't exactly 'leveled', but rather, dived by more than half. Multiple sources have reported time spent on the app has dropped, as well as active users, halved.
Oh, and if you do want to deactivate your Threads account, OR, unlink it from your Insta page, you have to delete your connecting Insta account as well. What? Yep.
So basically, people have been willing to check out Threads, but the complaint is it's 'half baked'. Analysts like Dan Ives of Wall Street are claiming they'd rather eat broccoli for an entire day than be on Threads. It's this kind of sentiment that's not really going to make Twitter green with envy. Or, divert ad budgets towards the platform, either.
Despite not really having the highest population density, the strongest interest in Threads appears to be coming from those in the ACT, and Tasmania, according to Google search trends.
Perhaps these are the areas where people are most keen on a change?
There are alternatives to Threads, like Mastodon and Spoutible. Basic desk research indicates that sentiment towards all of them so far, is that their user experience sucks. Whether it's the Insta wall on Threads, the lack of hashtags, the slow load times on Mastodon, Tweet view limits or speculation Spoutible is licensed Russian code, the gist is that people are frustrated.
Frustrated people don't really create the engagement marketers need.
The only thing for certain is for Twitter - people are ready to jump ship. And for Threads - Zuck is going to have to do more.
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