Ark Invest Has a Bold Prediction For the Future of Social Media

The Tesla-loving ETF sought to answer a simple question: Can Threads and Twitter exist at the same time?

Jul 13, 2023 - 02:30
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Ark Invest Has a Bold Prediction For the Future of Social Media

Since Mark Zuckerberg launched his Twitter rival Threads last week, it has been referred to as the "Twitter Killer." The new platform has become the fastest-growing app in history, gaining more than 100 million users less than a week after launching

And it seems like Threads' existence might be taking a chunk out of Twitter's traffic; Twitter's traffic was down 11% from last year on the first two days of Threads' launch. 

DON'T MISS: Threads App: Here's Everything We Know About Meta's New Twitter Competitor

Nick Grous, Ark's Associate Portfolio Manager, thinks that there is a world in which Twitter and Threads can exist simultaneously. Threads, to him, is no "Twitter Killer." It could, however, impact Twitter's reach. 

"If you look at how Instagram and Meta are trying to highlight Threads versus Twitter, they want this to be a place that is positive. Often, people will label Twitter as negative," Grous said in a podcast, adding that Adam Mosseri, Instagram's CEO, recently highlighted the major difference between Threads and Twitter. "They're not going to do anything to encourage what he deems as hard news and politics. I think oftentimes that is what Twitter is used for. I think if Twitter can hold onto that, they will maintain a ton of users. I think the market can support two platforms."

More Elon Musk & Mark Zuckerberg:

Grous' main question, though, is not whether Zuckerberg's new app will kill Twitter, but rather, whether his new app will bruise Musk's chances of turning Twitter into an 'everything' app. 

"Musk wants this to become an everything app. If you have a  competing app there with the same amount of users, how much does that impede the likelihood that you're able to reach the 'everything' app?" he said. "I don't think Twitter slowly dies from this, at least not right now. But it does potentially cap the total opportunity that Twitter could go after."

Ark's flagship Innovation ETF owns 149,106 shares of Meta, valued at just shy of $45 million. But the Musk-owned Tesla is the ETF's biggest investment. Ark Innovation's 3,570,820 Tesla shares are valued at $963,371,527. 

Meta stock was up more than 3% Wednesday. 

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