Meta has a rare opportunity to seize momentum with Threads

The 22-day-old app is still missing basic functionality people have come to expect from social media apps, like a desktop version that works in a web browser and the ability for professionals to schedule posts. — Photo by Stefani Reynolds/AFP

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms Inc. is incredibly good at making money from other peoples’ ideas – see Instagram and Reels. There’s every reason to think it can do the same with Threads, the Twitter-like app the social network launched earlier this month.

But that’s not what Zuckerberg needs from his latest product. Threads could help bring the center of internet culture back to Meta, once again making it a place where things happen first. Currently, TikTok is that place, minting trends with its entertaining short videos and exerting huge influence over popular music culture.