Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, is building its own Twitter: report

Another social media company may be preparing to take on Twitter, and this one has a proven track record.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, told the tech site platforms it is about “exploring an independent and decentralized social network for sharing text updates” called P92.

Instagram boss Adam Mosseri is reportedly running the company, which is in its early stages.

Former President Donald Trump launched Truth Social in February 2022 after he was banned from Twitter for posting inflammatory rhetoric that led to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Many conservatives, feeling that the rules Twitter user accounts were biased against him, they logged into Truth Social.

Then, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent $44 billion to buy Twitter in October, prominent liberals and moderates expressed interest in an alternative to Musk’s right-wing sensibilities. Some migrated to the lesser known Mastodon network.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg started his highly trafficked platform in 2004 while attending Harvard University. Today, it has almost 3 billion active users.

Twitter was believed to have 368 million monthly active users by the end of 2022, according to Statista, which has said that number is on the decline. He Pew Research Center claims that 10% of the platform’s users produce 92% of its content.

Meanwhile, Instagram, which Zuckerberg’s company bought for $1 billion in 2012, there were 1.21 billion monthly active users in 2021.

However, a direct comparison of these platforms is difficult considering Twitter is text driven while Instagram and Facebook are largely visual.

Musk, the world’s second-richest person, has struggled to monetize Twitter, which relies heavily on advertising fees. He joked last monthtweeting: “Say what you want about me but I acquired the largest nonprofit in the world for $44 billion lol.”

One of his plans to make money was for users to pay $8 to verify their account, which includes consumer benefits.

Meta is also dependent on advertising, but the potential business model for P92 is unknown at this time.