Meta's Decentralized Challenge to Twitter
By Greg Kahn
Emerging Tech Exchange
Founder & CEO
Published on May 23, 2023
Facebook and Twitter were the dominant forces of social media for much of the past decade. Except for brief flirtations, both tended to remain in their own respective lanes.
But as Meta has felt pressure from shareholders the past few years, it appeared to sense an opening against its never-rival, according to a variety of reports.
While still cloaked in rumor and anonymous sources, Meta is said to be developing a decentralized text-based app known as "P92" or "Barcelona."
This new app, set to be available through Meta’s Instagram, aims to enable users to seamlessly transfer their profiles, followers, and verification. P92 is expected to add a number of features, such as 500-character posts. It’s also offering to attach links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes long. (Twitter Blue subscribers’ posts can use up to 4,000 characters, a long cry from the 140-limit when the microblogging platform debuted in 2006.)
With Twitter facing scrutiny under Elon Musk's ownership and the rise of alternative platforms, Meta's strategic move holds the potential to shake up the microblogging landscape.
Of course, Meta’s plans were taking shape before Musk’s game-changing appointment of the highly-respected former NBCUniversal ad sales head Linda Yaccarino.
Still, leveraging Instagram's billion-plus monthly user base, P92 plans to attract creators and the famous with a “best of both worlds” offer: it’s a completely new platform, but they’ll still be able to bring their existing base with them.
But with Yaccarino in place, Twitter may have not only stanched the exodus of major brands, she’s poised to lead a resurgence of the financially struggling app that was promised when Musk first took over.
Either way, I’m intrigued by how Meta's “decentralized approach” will be applied here. Could it also give its stalled metaverse a new shot of life? It’s been widely noted that Meta has a tendency to quickly launch and then abandon new services.
Adoption of P92 (or whatever it’s ultimately called) clearly depends on Meta's ability to easily and attractively connect it to Instagram. Can it promise an exceptional user experience? Clearly, the promise of decentralization has great appeal at the moment.
Greg Kahn
Emerging Tech Exchange
Founder & CEO
