Meta reportedly started working on Threads in January 2023. From inception to launch in six months: that is a pretty tight turnaround for an app that did not get a true soft launch or beta launch.
This timing points to one key reason for the creation of Threads: Elon Musk. He took over Twitter in October 2022, and the platform has been in a state of rolling chaos ever since.
Most notably, ad revenues have plummeted. Musk recently confirmed they were down by 50%. And as this was in large part down to the contentiousness of the platform and how “verified” accounts were able to spoof being big companies’ accounts, Meta likely decided there was money left on the table.
Sure, maybe Meta is actually interested in recreating some of the appeal of earlier years of Twitter too.