With Threads looking to usurp Twitter's microblogging crown, we look at social media apps that came and went

While Mark Zuckerberg is rubbing his hands together this week, Elon Musk must be wondering what next move he should make to maintain Twitter as a leading social media platform.

For once the talk between the pair has moved away from a rumoured cage fight and centres on a different kind of competition. It is well known that since Musk took over the platform for $44 billion in October 2022, usage has been declining on the platform.

Data from May this year shows that tweets from 'top users' declined about 25 percent since Musk's acquisition.

And thus an opportunity has been created for Meta to step in and offer a platform that genuinely rivals what Twitter offers. You can read more about how that could be the case here.

But this isn't the first social media platform that has cropped up to rival the more established apps and websites. And it's fair to say that many haven't been successful before. PeopleWorld takes a closer look.

Mastodon

This free platform started in 2016 and has many features that are very similar to Twitter. Instead of operating as a single website, Mastodon is a network of thousands of independent servers.

However, once Musk bought Twitter, many users fled the platform in search of an environment with more friendly conversation. After an initial spike in users in early 2023, Mastodon has seen a decline. Reasons here include the fact that Mastodon is a space dominated by tech-savvy engaging in discourse much different to that found on Twitter.

Clubhouse

During the pandemic, Clubhouse was one of the most popular social media apps around. The social audio app was used as a means of conversation - like a call-in radio show - where users entered rooms to listen or participate in conversations.

However, its bubble soon burst - likely in time with people returning outdoors after the lockdown.

Google+

Arguably one of Google's biggest failures, Google Plus did little to actually overthrow Facebook as it clearly aimed to do.

Now extinct, the app failed to offer anything worthy to its users - and that's arguably where the problems stemmed from.

Yik Yak

Once valued at $400 million, this anonymous messaging platform became quite a hit among young adults. And that's exactly where its problems arguably lay; in its use of anonymity. The app was quickly misused for reasons such as bomb threats and hate-fueled violence.

Eventually, Yik Yak did little to offer something different to other cesspools of interaction across the web.

Vine

Long before TikTok and Instagram Reels, there was Vine. The app undoubtedly helped propel short-form video into the limelight and also became an early example of how social media and video could work together.

Its buzz eventually ended when Vine was bought by Twitter and merged with the platform, but also dwindled with the rise of other video-based platforms like Snapchat.