(Sherwood Media)

Meta: OK, OK! You can set your “Following” feed as the default in Threads!

The move comes amid the rapid rise of smaller rival Bluesky.

11/25/24 2:49PM

After ignoring the pleas of many users for months, Meta’s Threads is testing the ability for users to set their “Following” feed as the default view, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. This reversal comes after Instagram head Adam Mosseri had said this feature wouldn’t work.

View on Threads

Recently, Mosseri answered a user’s question about setting “Following” as the primary feed:

“Of course we’ve thought about it. We’ve tested it and tried it a number of times. Every time we have, there’s a subgroup of people who are happy, there’s a bunch of people who forget that they’re in it, and then overall, everybody who’s in it uses Instagram less and less over time. And when we ask them questions like, ”How satisfied are you with Instagram?” they actually report being less happy with Instagram more and more over time, on average.”

It’s noteworthy that Meta seems to be quickly adding some long-requested features like custom feeds, landscape video viewing, and now this default feed setting. Since the US presidential election, a massive migration of social-media users away from X has led to a huge spike in new users on Bluesky, which rose from the ashes of Jack Dorsey’s Twitter.

Thanks to the current surge of over a million sign-ups per day, Bluesky said it now has 22 million users. Threads has over 275 million users.

Threads users have complained about the chaotic “For You” feed, which has been the default view for users, as it routinely showed days-old posts, making it less useful for following breaking news events.

Meta has also stated that “political content” from users you don’t follow would not be recommended by the Threads algorithm in your “For You” feed, unless you dig into your settings and opt in to see such content.

Rani Molla7h

Alphabet announces $80 billion equity raise to fund AI infrastructure, including a $10 billion bet from Berkshire Hathaway

To fund its rapidly expanding AI infrastructure push, Alphabet just announced a whopping $80 billion equity capital raise.

While concerns over share dilution sent the stock down slightly after-hours, the deal secured a major anchor partner: Berkshire Hathaway, which is backing the offering with a $10 billion investment. (Berkshire was run by Warren Buffett until he stepped down as CEO at the beginning of this year, handing the reins to Greg Abel.)

Alphabet plans to spend up to $190 billion on capex this year.

Alphabet Announces Proposed $80 Billion Equity Capital Raise to Expand AI Infrastructure and Compute

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Rani Molla11h

Despite a massive surge in corporate AI spending, the technology is broadly failing to deliver the massive cost reductions executives had anticipated, according to a new global survey from Bain & Co. shared with Bloomberg. The largest share of major companies measuring their AI returns — 40% — realized cost savings of 10% or less, with poor access to internal data cited as the primary roadblock. Most had expected higher returns. More concerningly, Bain warned that many companies are using their original, overly optimistic projections — rather than their actual savings — to justify funding their next wave of expensive AI investments, creating a “circular bet with a structural leak.”

Rani Molla

12h

Meta thinks it can save its hardware division with AI subscriptions. There are reasons to be skeptical.

An $8 AI subscription won’t plug a $19 billion hardware hole.

A visitor is seen trying a Ray-Ban Meta glasses at a Meta

Jon Keegan12h

Anthropic confidentially files for IPO

Anthropic has filed confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its initial public offering. The IPO is expected to be one of the largest in US history, and will likely be joined by OpenAI, which is also expected to go public before the end of the year.

The company filed a draft S-1 form with the SEC, which does not indicate the price of the offering. The official public S-1, which will come later, will give potential shareholders a first look at the finances of Anthropic, which just last week announced that it raised $65 billion, reaching a valuation of $965 billion. This puts the company well ahead of archrival OpenAI, which is currently valued at $850 billion.

Anthropic confidentially submits draft S-1 to the SEC

Rani Molla14h

Prosus may thwart Uber’s bid for Delivery Hero

Uber’s aggressive pursuit of Delivery Hero could hit a major roadblock. After the European food delivery giant rejected Uber’s initial $11.6 billion buyout offer, the American company pivoted, scooping up a 37% stake in the open market.

Now, Prosus, formerly Delivery Hero’s largest shareholder, is plotting a counteroffensive.

Thanks to an EU regulatory waiver Monday that temporarily pauses its mandatory stock sell-down, the Amsterdam-based investment firm is reportedly looking to either increase its stake or rally other shareholders against Uber. The goal: block the takeover entirely or force a significantly higher premium.

Prosus has warned about the loss of European tech relevance if a US giant swallows the company. Meanwhile, investors are loving the drama: the takeover tug-of-war, which also includes DoorDash, has sent Delivery Hero stock soaring over 75% in the past month.

Meta: OK, OK! You can set your “Following” feed as the default in Threads!

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Alphabet Announces Proposed $80 Billion Equity Capital Raise to Expand AI Infrastructure and Compute

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Anthropic confidentially submits draft S-1 to the SEC

Prosus may thwart Uber’s bid for Delivery Hero

Uber faces Prosus challenge in Delivery Hero pursuit

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