According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Platforms executives are strongly committed to enhancing retention on their recently launched Twitter competitor, Threads. After experiencing a significant drop in users following its high-profile launch, the company aims to improve user engagement and keep them on the text-based app. While the user retention was better than expected, Zuckerberg acknowledged during an internal company town hall that there is room for improvement as it is not yet perfect, as reported by Reuters, who heard the audio from the event.
Zuckerberg acknowledged the significance of surpassing 100 million sign-ups, but he also recognized that the current retention rate is below the desired level. However, he remains optimistic that in time, a larger percentage of users will stay engaged with the platform. Despite this drop-off, Meta reported higher profits and revenue for Q2, thanks to the rebound in advertising.
Zuckerberg views the initial decline in users as a regular occurrence and anticipates that as Meta introduces additional features to the app, user retention will improve. Some of the upcoming enhancements include a desktop version and search functionality.
According to Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, Meta is actively exploring the integration of additional “retention-driving hooks” to lure users back to the app. One such idea is to ensure that users on the Instagram app have easy access to important Threads content.
As for the recent internal meeting, a company spokesperson chose not to provide any comments.
These remarks from the executives came the day after Meta impressed investors with an optimistic revenue growth forecast, signalling a potential resurgence for the company. This positive development is noteworthy, especially considering the scepticism the company faced last year due to its substantial spending on the metaverse, coupled with a decline in ad sales.
The announcement resulted in an 8% surge in Meta’s shares on Thursday.
During the call, Zuckerberg informed employees that the company’s progress on augmented and virtual reality technology for the metaverse was on track and not significantly ahead of schedule. However, he emphasized the importance of initiating investments in this area ahead of competitors like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. These tech giants have extensive experience in building operating systems for their existing products, and Meta needs to stay competitive by getting a head start in the metaverse development.
“We want to have all the necessary tools ready for when the metaverse is fully prepared for widespread adoption,” Zuckerberg mentioned, projecting that the mass adoption of metaverse technologies would likely occur in the 2030s.
Additionally, Zuckerberg and Cox emphasized the recent release of an artificial intelligence model named Llama 2. Meta made this model freely available for commercial use to developers with services catering to fewer than 700 million users. Cox revealed that the model has already garnered over 150,000 download requests within a week of its release.
Addressing a question about a proposed “cage match” involving Elon Musk, Zuckerberg expressed uncertainty about whether such an event would actually materialize.