I’ve been thinking a little about how Meta’a Threads social network operates; specifically the algorithmic-first feed. 

The algorithmic-first feed is no blunder, it was done intentionally and it was very smart. Is it appealing to most of us who care about this kind of thing? Absolutely not. However, it is appealing to two specific groups that are absolutely required for a behemoth like Meta to bootstatrap themselves for an adjacent market sector: celebrities and brands. 

An algorithmic feed turns a ghost town into a brand new mall. It’s a place where things are obviously happening. This serves a few purposes that ultimately cascade. 

1. It offers celebrities a platform where they know they will be seen before others, which is good for them.
2. It offers brands a platform where they will have a better presence, which is good for them.
3. The combination of 1 and 2 provide an entertainment-like experience of infinite content for users, which probably isn’t good for them, but they will consume it and complete the cycle.

The third point about infinite algorithmic content is likely where folks will start questioning my reasoning. Who wants to get on a “social network” just to browse around and view random garbage? As it turns out, a lot of people. How many hours do people spend mindlessly scrolling TikTok videos made by people they don’t know? I’m going to guess most of them.

Instagram has slowly been adopting the algorithmic-first feed over the past couple of years and it seems to be working for them. Why wouldn’t Threads also continue down this path? After all, adding a personal feed based on who you follow is the easy part. This functionality could be trivially added by Meta in the future if enough people are interested… but will they be?