Issue 140: Where Has All the Innovation Gone?
Welcome to Backstory, a weekly newsletter turning global technology shifts into a three-minute read. This week, we’re talking about threads. – Mary Ames, Director of Strategy
THE BIG TAKE
Where Has All the Innovation Gone?
The race to replace Twitter has found its most potent contender. Meta released its Twitter clone, Threads, to substantial fanfare last week. The platform, essentially an offshoot of Meta’s Instagram platform, racked up 100 million users in record time (it even beat out ChatGPT’s monumental rise to 100 million users). Brands and celebrities have flocked to Threads as Twitter’s many self-inflicted problems push advertisers and users away. After all these years of social media, one would think a new platform would innovate previous approaches to sharing online. However, that’s not the case.
Where is the edit button? Mark Zuckerberg didn’t set out to establish a genuinely new product with Threads. He wanted to capitalize on Twitter’s problems and add value to his existing portfolio of platforms. Consider that Threads doesn’t even include an edit feature, which Twitter users have complained about for years. Instead of seeing an opportunity to innovate a truly spectacular social media platform, Meta rushed through a shoddy copy of Twitter. This decision could end up costing Meta in the long run.
Cautionary tales. Several technology writers have pointed out the potential danger of a bad social media platform for Meta. Google’s half-baked Facebook competitor, Google +, is one of the worst products the company ever shipped. Like Threads, Google + launched with much fanfare and users. At the time, Google tried to keep up with Facebook’s remarkable rise but didn’t take the time to innovate something original. It’s too early to tell if Threads will go down the same path, but the initial indicators don’t look good. The pace of technological innovation is too fast to simply copy existing platforms, no matter how many users you have. We deserve more.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Life exists in the universe only because the carbon atom possesses certain exceptional properties.”
– James Jeans, English Physicist
CHART OF THE WEEK
This week we are looking at carbon-sucking bionic weeds. Biologists hope that genetically engineered plants can save us from climate change. Now they are looking at different yields to turn into carbon-sucking weeds.
OUR VIEWS THIS WEEK
Everyone is looking: Facial recognition technology is controversial and will likely stay that way for some time. That doesn’t change the fact that the industry is booming and expanding, particularly in North America. So it’s about time to address the concerns about facial recognition and make the necessary changes. This week, we took a deep dive into the debate about this powerful technology.
Economic horizon: Circular economies are rising. The idea of an economic model focused on reducing, reusing, recycling, and remanufacturing resources to ensure growth has transitioned from academic theory to a guiding ideology. This week, we took a deep dive into how circular economies operate and explored the benefits of the model in Dubai. The potential upside is staggering.
SPOTTED ELSEWHERE
Caught unprepared. According to research compiled by Business Insider, many CEOs across various industries were caught entirely off guard by the sudden rise of artificial intelligence platforms such as ChatGPT earlier this year. We have written extensively about how preparation is vital to harnessing the positive power of AI, and this story confirms why there was such a frenzy to understand AI. We can’t innovate on ideas we don’t understand.
The Anthropocene is real. Earth has entered a new epoch for the first time in roughly 11,700 years. Known as the Anthropocene, this epoch is the first in history where humans have irreversibly influenced the planet’s geology. This was a theory until a small group of scientists in Canada proved how humanity has impacted the Earth. The Financial Times has a fascinating story explaining how human life has influenced the climate and everything else on Earth. If you want to learn more, check out The Anthropocene Reviewed podcast.