Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) is working to launch a new social media app to replace Twitter. Meta believes there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.
Meta’s app will be based on a similar framework that powers Mastodon, a Twitter-like service that was launched in 2016. A Twitter-like app would allow Meta to take advantage of the current chaos at the Elon Musk-led company, where cost-cutting has been rampant.
Meta’s plans come at a time when its biggest platform, Facebook, is struggling to attract the attention of a younger audience, while its huge investments in the metaverse, a virtual world where users interact and work, show little signs of paying off, at least in the near term, Reuters reported.
Its video-sharing app, Instagram, is also facing stiff competition as content makers or hit influencers abandon the platform for TikTok.
Meta’s investments in the metaverse will not drive revenue growth until 2030, analysts have said. Meta shares were marginally higher at $181.7 in early trade on Friday. They have gained about 51% so far this year.
Tech newsletter Platformer reported that the project, codenamed P92, would be built as a stand-alone app, but that users would log in using their Instagram credentials. The move could help Meta attract some of the Twitter users who are looking for alternatives after Musk took over and changed some of the site’s rules.
The effort by Meta would expand its offerings beyond Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, and into a space that has been dominated by Elon Musk’s Twitter. The project is being led by Instagram head Adam Mosseri, Platformer said.
Meta is also exploring integrations with existing social networks like Twitter or Mastodon, in part relying on a protocol called ActivityPub, Moneycontrol reported.