The new social network Threads has not yet aroused large-scale interest from advertisers

The new Threads social network, despite the presence on it of large brands like Yandex and M.Video, has not yet aroused large-scale interest from advertisers, according to market participants interviewed by Kommersant, although a number of agencies are preparing to test the platform. Threads is based on Instagram and was already blocked in the Russian Federation at the time of launch. Lawyers are inclined to believe that working with Threads in the country can be done in the same way as with Instagram, without payments to Meta (its activities on Facebook and Instagram have been declared extremist in the Russian Federation and are prohibited), which can be regarded as financing extremism.

Kommersant polled participants in the Russian advertising and influence marketing market for interest in Threads, a social network launched on July 6 by Meta. Yulia Dolgova, Deputy CEO of LabelUp, “does not observe strong interest” in the new platform from large clients, but admits that budgets for test campaigns have already been laid down – “in a month they will definitely be carried out in some quantity.” The founder of Digital Church, Mark Khludnev, noted that the agency already leads bloggers in Threads. “Within two or three months, we will understand whether we need this social network,” he said. The head of Epicstars, Denis Volkov, specified that lawyers are evaluating the possibility of entering Threads, and the agency can launch a test campaign “within a couple of weeks.”

Ivan Yezhov, director of development and growth at Yandex Plus, notes that Threads does not yet have “a critical mass of users, before experimenting with advertising on the site, you need to wait for the audience to reach a plateau and understand its uniqueness relative to other Meta sites.” LabelUp is studying Threads, but “while there is no transparent data on the number of users per month and on the statistics that the site is ready to give, active interest and trust from advertisers will not arise,” adds Ms. Dolgova.

The application of the new service is available in the Russian segments of the App Store and Google Play stores, but from the Russian Federation it can only be used via VPN. Roskomnadzor did not answer whether Threads is being blocked purposefully or as part of Instagram. But they emphasized that “a condition for the operation of any social network on the territory of the Russian Federation is strict compliance with the requirements of Russian legislation.” The Prosecutor General’s Office, which decided to block the Meta social networks in 2022, did not respond to a request.

The court, banning Meta’s activities for the implementation of Facebook and Instagram, distinguished between social networks and instant messengers.

Threads can be classified as social networks in terms of functionality, and given the technical connection with Instagram, “in general, it can be recognized as a function or service of an already blocked network,” says Yury Fedyukin, managing partner of Enterprise Legal Solutions.

In his opinion, the risks of using Threads are exactly the same as in the case of banned networks.

From the fact that Threads should legally be perceived as part of Instagram, Ekaterina Abashina, the lawyer of the Moscow CCA DBA and Partners, proceeds: “The list of “Meta products” is given in a single user agreement. This list does not include Threads as a standalone app, but mentions “other Instagram apps”.

Ms. Abashina clarifies that in the 2022 court decision, the measures do not restrict the use of Meta software by persons who did not participate in prohibited activities: “At the same time, payments for targeted advertising and other payments in favor of Meta may be recognized as financing extremist activities.” However, Threads does not yet have a way to place targeted ads, and the Meta ad account has not been working for Russian legal entities since March 2022.

Yuri Litvinenko