Mark Zuckerberg (left) and Elon Musk (right).
Christophe Morin/IP3/Getty Images; Chesnot/Getty Images
It looks like Zuckerberg didn’t need to wait for a cage match to land some punches on Musk.
Meta’s Twitter rival, Threads, has garnered two million sign ups since it launched.
Users have been touting Twitter’s demise, but Zuckerberg says they’re “only in the opening moments.”
It looks like Mark Zuckerberg didn’t need to wait for a jiu-jitsu cage match with Elon Musk to land some punches on the Twitter owner — the Zuck has already started sassing Musk in posts on Threads.
Meta launched its new text-based app, Threads, on Wednesday. Zuckerberg has interacted with several Threads users since the app went live, some of whom drew comparisons between the new Meta platform and its obvious rival, Twitter.
“Threads is brilliant. Twitter is done. Elon to be KO by Zuck too 😃” said a user named strikingbreakdowns.
“We’re only in the opening moments of the first round here,” Zuckerberg replied.
“What he really needs to throw in is the towel…at least as far as Twitter is concerned lmao,” said another user named iamsamyrlaine, in a veiled reference to Musk. Zuckerberg responded with a “face with tears of joy” emoji.
Zuckerberg, whose company could greatly benefit from Twitter’s turmoil, has been stoking the fire that’s fueled his long-running rivalry with Musk. The Meta founder accepted Musk’s challenge to throw down in a cage fight, after Musk tweeted that Threads would eventually put the Earth “exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options.”
And it looks like Zuckerberg is taking the first shot by hitting Musk where it hurts — making Threads the “anti-Twitter.”
For starters, Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that he is going to make Threads a “friendly place.” Zuckerberg agreed with entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk’s comment that Threads and its users should “focus on kindness.”
“We are definitely focusing on kindness and making this a friendly place,” Zuckerberg replied.
And it seems like people are flocking to Threads, though it remains to be seen if it can outpace Twitter in the long run. Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that more than five million people signed up for the platform in the first four hours of its launch.
“Anyone think this can become bigger than twitter!?” said a user named mikedavismma.
“It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will,” Zuckerberg replied.
For now, it’s 1-0 to Zuckerberg. Your move, Elon.