Meta Threads has lost half of its users, following the decline in the buzz that accompanied the launch earlier this month. Now Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing to rekindle the frenzy that saw the Instagram-based app reach 100 million users within five days.

Audio from an internal company town hall heard by Reuters Noted Zuckerberg charging Meta’s executives on Thursday to focus heavily on boosting retention on Threads.

The copycat text-based social media platform, designed to rival Twitter, beat existing records to reach the milestone of 100 million users in five days. But a lot of the app’s new signups are leaving for reasons bothering the platform’s features and policies.

Despite the significant drop in the number of users, Zuckerberg said that retention on Threads was better than executives had expected.

“Obviously, if you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We’re not there yet,” he said.

The CEO regarded the drop-off as a “normal” occurrence and expressed optimism that user retention would increase as the company introduces additional features to the app. These enhancements include the development of a desktop version and the incorporation of search functionality.

The retention drive is seen as part of efforts by Zuckerberg to sustain Meta’s growth. The social media behemoth has shrugged off setbacks in user and revenue growth in the past two years, realizing profits that beat estimates.

Meta impressed investors with an optimistic revenue growth forecast, indicating a potential comeback for the company. Previously, the company had faced significant skepticism due to its substantial spending on the metaverse, coupled with a decline in ad sales.

According to Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, Meta is exploring the addition of more “retention-driving hooks” to encourage users to return to Threads. One of the approaches they are considering is ensuring that people using the Instagram app can easily access important Threads content, thereby increasing user engagement and retention.

But Meta is also expanding its business net vigorously, with additions such as augmented and virtual reality technology. Zuckerberg said such investments will help Meta stay ahead of rival companies such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft when the time comes for the metaverse.

“That way, we have all the tools ready for when this is ready for prime time,” he said, predicting that mass adoption of metaverse technologies would take place in the 2030s.

Another area Meta is investing in heavily is artificial intelligence. Zuckerberg and Cox highlighted the recent release of an artificial intelligence model known as Llama 2 by the company. This AI model is now made accessible for commercial use to any developer whose services cater to a user base of fewer than 700 million.

The launch of Threads bolstered the rivalry between Twitter owner Elon Musk and Zuckerberg, who was accused of copying the microblogging app. In a ‘cease and desist’ letter sent to Meta, Twitter’s lawyer had accused Zuckerberg of “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”

Musk said in response to Zuckerberg’s launch of Threads, that “competition is fine, cheating is not.” This came after the American billionaire entrepreneurs entertained the idea of settling their rivalry in a cage fight.

Meta is searching for ways to retain Threads users after more than half the people who initially signed up bailed within weeks of the app’s launch. At a company town hall on Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that the drop in users was “normal,” and that retention was in fact better than executives had expected. He added that it would improve once Meta adds features like a search function and a desktop app. Meta is also looking at “retention-driving hooks” such as “making sure people who are on the Instagram app can see important Threads,” said Chief Product Officer Chris Cox. (LinkedIn News)

As the Nigerian forex market continues to fluctuate, with the naira, the nation’s currency, falling deeply against the dollar, the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) has predicted that the government will return to its previous system – where the central bank had control pegs around the naira to curb its performance.

In its latest report about the naira, the EIU said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) lacks the experience to handle a flexible exchange rate system, indicating that without control, the naira will continue on its free fall in the exchange market.

The EIU said it expects the naira to slide beyond N800/$1 in July, given the country’s rapid rate of inflation.

“The CBN lacks experience in conducting monetary policy under a float, and the need to control rapidly increasing inflation will become more acute over time.

“Our forecast is finely balanced, but we expect a return to heavier exchange-rate management from the second half of 2023 as the naira slides beyond N800:US$1 from N770:US$1 in early July,” the research and analytical firm said.

The deregulation of the FX market came as part of President Bola Tinubu’s reforms, which has also seen the removal of fuel subsidies.

Before the deregulation, the CBN operated a system of controlled FX market, with the naira rate against the dollar officially pegged at around N464/$1 at Investor and Exporter (I&E) window. Although the controlled FX market system came with multiple exchange rates, the official rate of the naira was determined by the central bank.

However, the naira’s woeful performance in the FX market has been attributed to insufficient liquidity of foreign currencies – owing largely to the drop in oil revenue and FX generation from non-oil exports.

Even after the floating of the FX market, exchange rates are yet to reach convergence. The naira traded around N768.60/$1 at the I&E window and N870/$1 at the parallel market as of Friday.

The CBN acting governor, Fola Shonubi, admitted in a post-MPC meeting on Tuesday, “the reality that there is pent-up demand which current supply may not be sufficient for.”

The EIU said the shortage of foreign currency in the country is affecting the fulfillment of demands for foreign exchange through Form A and M. This scarcity, along with opportunistic behavior by speculators, could lead the CBN to increase its market interventions. Notably, approximately 98 percent of their foreign reserves are in cash, further highlighting the need for proactive measures to address the situation.

But the firm noted that Nigeria’s foreign reserves are still relatively liquid, which means they can pay for imports for at least another six to eight months. This has been doubted by many, given the country’s inability to fulfill its reparatory financial obligations.

Nigeria’s foreign reserves stood at $33.946 billion as of July, according to the CBN. But Africa’s largest economy has failed to repatriate more than $500 million in trapped funds belonging to members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), raising suspicion that the foreign reserves may not be as much as the central bank claims.

Investors are concerned that Nigeria is struggling to pay off debts that it should be able to pay easily given the said volume of its foreign reserves.

According to the EIU’s projections, the naira is anticipated to experience a slower devaluation than initially predicted in the medium to long term due to the instability of the exchange rate and its impact on people’s lives. They estimate that the average exchange rate will be around “N815 to US$1 in 2024” and will further decline to “N1,018 to US$1 by the end of 2027”.