Threads vs Twitter (Sorry... X)

Threads vs Twitter, Indian companies in YC & why Lyft is still an individual company?

July 28, 2023

1/ Threads vs Twitter:

Threads became the fastest app to ever reach 100M+ users, they did it in 7 days. After 10 days of using it here’s my take.

Its in the no man’s land. I am not sure who is it catering to. Core twitter users are different from core Instagram users. Right now Threads is not attracting core twitter users (I am talking the one’s who tweet not the ones who scroll endlessly). Threads didn’t fully embrace the “we will be a copy of twitter”, instead they want to put their own mark (pun intended) on it. The result is its not a twitter clone, and that’s a bad thing.

Zuck and team are relentless executors, they will correct the course, make the tweaks, copy the features needed.

The honeymoon phase is over, the reality is about to kick in.

2/ No Indian companies in YC batch

  • YC W23 - 11

  • YC S22 - 20

  • YC W22 - 33

  • YC S21 - 31

  • YC W21 - 40

The peak was in YC W21 batch with 40 Indian companies. So why is this dropping?

Two reasons:

  • YC is being more selective and reduced its batch sizes.

  • Indian companies have local alternatives like Surge by Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India)

YC Summer 23 batch

3/ Why is Lyft not acquired yet?

It boggles my mind that LYFT is still an individual company.

Its doesn’t make any sense for Lyft to operate as an individual company. The current market cap of Lyft is less than the over all capital it raised from venture and IPO.

  • Amount Lyft Raised: $4.9B (according to CrunchBase)

  • Market Cap: $4.65B

Lyft is not working as an individual business like its competitor Uber is. Uber is working towards profitability and has been growing its Uber Eats business as well. While Lyft is moving market share on its ride business.

Who should acquire LYFT?

  • Doordash: LYFT fits right into all things Doordash is doing. Its like Uber Eats acquiring a ride hailing business to form a better Uber. Doordash is obviously leading in food & grocery business, by extending to car hailing they can capture all things gig economy.

  • X Corp: I think acquiring LYFT would bring Elon a step closer to create a super app, but this is unlikely considerably how much debt the company already has and the decreasing revenues.

  • Others who might benefit: Instacart, PayPal, Square

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