Meta to bring out ‘retention hooks’ after half of users jump Threads

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Friday said the executives at the company's platforms are highly dedicated to enhancing retention rates on their latest Twitter competitor, Threads after the app experienced a significant drop in users during the initial weeks after its highly anticipated launch.

Addressing employees at an internal town hall meeting, Zuckerberg revealed that while user retention on the text-based platform was better than initially projected, it still requires improvement as it was not yet at an optimal level.

"Obviously, if you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We're not there yet," he said.

Zuckerberg said the drop-off was "normal" and he was optimistic that the retention would grow with the addition of more features like a desktop version and improved search functionality.

"Meta is looking at adding more retention-driving hooks to entice users to return to the app, like making sure people who are on the Instagram app can see important Threads," said Chief Product Officer Chris Cox.

However, a company spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting.

Just one day after Meta impressed investors with an optimistic revenue growth forecast, signalling a remarkable turnaround for a company that faced significant doubts due to its substantial spending on the metaverse last year amid declining ad sales, the executives made their statements. The disclosure had an immediate impact, driving Meta's shares up by 8% on Thursday.

During the call with employees, Zuckerberg expressed his belief that the company's progress on augmented and virtual reality technology, crucial for the development of the metaverse, was "on track" without being significantly ahead of schedule. 

He emphasised the importance of starting investments in this area early, given the competition from well-established companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, which have years of experience in building operating systems for existing products.

"That way, we have all the tools ready for when this is ready for prime time," he said, predicting that mass adoption of metaverse technologies would take place in the 2030s.

Zuckerberg and Cox showcased the recent launch of Meta's artificial intelligence model, Llama 2, during this month. They emphasised that the model is now accessible for free commercial use to all developers whose services cater to fewer than 700 million users.

Since its release, Llama 2 has garnered an impressive 150,000 download requests within just one week, as reported by Cox.

Responding to a question on the proposed "cage match" against Elon Musk, Zuckerberg said he was "not sure if it's going to come together."

Responding to a question on the proposed "cage match" against Elon Musk, Zuckerberg said he was "not sure if it's going to come together."