Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that Instagram’s new text-based app and Twitter competitor, Threads, gained over 10 million new users in the first seven hours after it went live.
The chairman and CEO behind Facebook and Instagram says that the new Twitter-like social media app which launched on Wednesday, 6 July, managed to accrue 5m new accounts in just four hours before doubling that amount in the following three. Wowzers.
However, given that it is essentially a text-based companion to Instagram and people on the photo-centric app can create the accompanying account with the press of a button, it could potentially rise to around 2 billion in the coming weeks.
Marketed as the chat-based version of Instagram, Threads ports over all your profile’s existing details and followers and allows users to carry out “real-time updates and public conversations”. After taking one glance, you can quite clearly see that it is quite literally just Twitter without the same logo:
From controversies surrounding freedom of speech, purging bots along with verified accounts and the whole ‘Twitter blue’ subscription thing, not to mention most recently limiting how posts people can see in a day, the billionaire kind of just made what was a straightforward app into a bit of a mess.
The platform had never been perfect (far from it) and certainly needed improvements, especially when it came to things like racism, misinformation, online abuse and so on, but with this stripped-back alternative now on offer, it seems millions are likely to make the move away from it.
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Threads allows you to like, reply, repost; pretty much do everything else Twitter already did and more, only Zuckerberg didn’t have to pay £38.1bn to have his company’s name on it, admitting: “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”
Kicking off the social media platform with the first ever thread, the 39-year-old simply tweete——sorry, posted, “Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads”, along with a fire emoji. He also went on to say that although it will obviously take time, he predicts there will be “over a billion people on it” before we know it.
Some of the advantages the new app definitely does have over its spiritual predecessor is that character limit, which taps out at 500, as well as the ability to not only share the usual links and pictures but also videos of up to five minutes.
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While Threads is currently unavailable in the EU as it is yet to be fully reviewed by the union’s privacy and data protection regulator, it has already rolled out in over 100 different countries including the UK, US, Ireland and Australia.
Zuckerberg also insisted that this is merely an “initial version” of the app and that the team at Meta will keep developing the platform and intend to “actively listen to feedback” from the community already growing on there. The question is, will Threads see Twitter go extinct or do you think it’s a bubble waiting to burst?
Featured Image — The Manc Group (via Threads)/Wikimedia Commons
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Sunday Times Rich List – Sir Jim Ratcliffe remains richest man in North West despite losing £6bn
Daisy Jackson
The Sunday Times Rich List has today been released, revealing that Sir Jim Ratcliffe remains the richest man in the North West, and third-richest in the country.
The annual list names the richest of the rich across the UK, and the combined wealth of the 350 individuals and families listed in 2024 amounts to more than the GDP of Poland at £795.361 billion.
As well as Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who remains on the Sunday Times Rich List despite losing more than £6bn this year, other famous names include David and Victoria Beckham, Sir Elton John, and Lord Lloyd-Webber.
Representing the wealthiest in the North West are Michael Platt, The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family, and Home Bargains boss Tom Morris.
The billionaire Issa brothers who own Asda and founded EG Group complete the top five richest people regionally.
Local man Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who made his billions through chemical giant Ineos, has almost double the wealth of runner-up Michael Platt.
Harry Styles has made it onto the Sunday Times Rich List.
He recently ran the London Marathon at the age of 71 and secured a 25% stake of his childhood football club Manchester United.
The Duke of Westminster, who inherited his title and a huge land and property portfolio at the age of just 25, remains the richest person under 40 in the UK.
Now 33 years old and recently moved to Cheshire, his fortune now stands at £10.127 billion.
He’ll soon lose his title as the ‘UK’s most eligible bachelor’ though, with the Duke set to marry Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral next month.
Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end. Many of our home-grown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super rich who came here are moving away.
“Thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent. We’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire, and what that means for our economy.
“These may be harder times to create wealth, but The Sunday Times Rich List continues to unearth entrepreneurs building fortunes in diverse and often surprising ways. This year’s new entries include people who have made money from artificial intelligence and virtual worlds as well as plumbing supplies and teaching aides.
“We know many of our readers find such people — especially those from humbler backgrounds — very inspiring.”
The minimum entry to get onto the mega-rich list this year is a whopping £350m.
Teens could be recruited as train drivers to help ‘improve’ Britain’s railways amid ongoing strikes
Emily Sergeant
Teenagers could soon be recruited as train drivers in a bid to help “improve” Britain’s railways, the Government has announced.
Amid what have been ongoing strikes for the past couple of years now, and following on from the announcement back in February that ASLEF train drivers at several train companies and operators had voted ‘overwhelmingly’ to continue taking industrial action for another six months, the Government has now proposed lowering the minimum age to become a train driver from 20 to 18.
A consultation on the somewhat-controversial move is to be launched as part of the Government’s efforts to open up more careers in the rail sector to young people.
Ultimately, transport ministers believe this could “improve the reliability of rail services” across the UK.
Teens could be recruited as train drivers to help ‘improve’ Britain’s railways amid ongoing strikes / Credit: National Rail
This surprising recruitment drive announcement comes after the Government has revealed that the train driver workforce is projected to shrink without opening up more opportunities for new recruits in the near future – especially given the fact the average age of a train driver in Britain is 48 years old, and many are set to retire within the next five years or so.
Under the new proposals set to go out to consultation, the Department for Transport (DfT) will create a new pathway for school leavers to take up apprenticeships and train to join the profession.
If agreed following the consultation, the new regulations to lower the minimum age for train drivers from 20 to 18 could be in place as early as this summer, according to the Government, which will apparently “help set thousands of young people on track to a career in transport” once they’ve bid farewell to their school days.
The Government says its proposal to lower the minimum age would “build resilience” across the railway.
The Government has launched a consultation of the lowering of the minimum train driver age / Credit: Northern
Not only is the proposal said to form part of wider Government plans to create more opportunities where young people can gain the skills they need to succeed, all while generating more jobs that lead to a “productive” and “high-skilled” economy, but transport ministers believe attracting more young train drivers would help the rail industry provide a “more reliable service” for customers when other staff are off sick or on annual leave.
By opening up the sector to young people, the Government claims this would be “a positive step” and one that directly benefits passengers.
“We want to open the door for young people considering transport as a career, and this proposal could give school-leavers a clear path into the sector,” commented Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, as the proposals were unveiled this week.
We're asking for views on lowering the minimum age requirement to become a train driver in Great Britain from 20 to 18.
This could open the door to thousands of new opportunities for young people in transport.
“By boosting age diversity in the sector and attracting more drivers, we can help support reliable services while creating opportunities for more young people.”
If the proposals are introduced, the Government says all prospective train drivers, regardless of their age, will continue to be held to the same stringent training requirements as before to ensure the safe use of our railways for everyone.
To become a licensed train driver in the UK, trainees must pass mandatory medical, psychological, fitness, and general professional competence examinations.