– Shopify Acquires Threads.com –
In a surprising move, Shopify has announced its acquisition of Threads.com, the Sequoia-backed alternative to Slack. According to Threads themselves, the details of the deal remain undisclosed, but it has been confirmed that the team behind Threads.com will be joining Shopify.
Threads.com initially launched in stealth mode back in 2019 with $10.5 million in funding. However, it wasn’t until Meta (formerly known as Facebook) launched its own social network called Threads last year that the startup gained widespread recognition. Interestingly, Meta also had another product by the same name – an Instagram companion app that was active from 2019 to 2021.
In light of Meta’s launch, Threads.com was approached by a few potential buyers expressing interest in acquiring the company. After careful consideration, Threads ultimately chose to join forces with Shopify, citing the opportunity to “tinker at scale” as a major factor in their decision.
In a blog post, Threads.com explained their decision:
“Around the same time [when Threads.com was considering selling the domain], a handful of companies approached us, wondering if we would be open to an acquisition. When this happened in the past, we would politely decline. However, this time, things were different. We weren’t that excited about the time it would take to invest in a rebrand, and with mind-warping technological advances now being a commodity, we were excited about joining a place where we could tinker at scale.”
This acquisition also solves a potential issue that arose when Meta launched its own Threads social network last year. As Threads.com already owned the domain name Threads.com, Meta was forced to use Threads.net for their version. However, many customers continued to visit the .com website and download the Threads.com app before realizing it wasn’t the social network they were looking for.
According to data from analytics firm data.ai, during the week of Meta’s launch, the Threads.com app saw over 880,000 downloads globally on iOS alone. Additionally, on Android, the app reached over a million lifetime downloads with just a few downloads prior to Meta’s announcement.
Threads.com co-founder and CEO Rousseau Kazi, who previously worked at Facebook for six years, commented on the power of their company name:
“Threads is a powerful word and an internet native term. Using threads – on various platforms – is the best way to stay connected with your [network] or [company]. Given this, it comes as no surprise that Meta chose a powerful label to represent their take at building the town square.”
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke expressed his excitement in welcoming Kazi and his team to the company, but did not provide further details on how the Threads.com product will be integrated into Shopify’s operations. Ultimately, this acquisition speaks to the growing power and influence of e-commerce giant Shopify and its efforts to expand its reach and offerings in the tech world.
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