Shopify acquires Threads (no, not that one)

Shopify has acquired Threads.com, the Seqiuoa-backed Slack various, Threads mentioned on its web site. The businesses didn’t disclose the phrases of the deal however mentioned that the Threads.com crew will be part of Shopify.

Threads added that after the launch of Meta’s social community with the identical identify final 12 months, the startup had “the chance to promote our domains.” IT just isn’t clear if the startup bought the area identify to Meta, Shopify, or anybody else, however the observe does point out that IT would have needed to rebrand from Threads had IT remained unbiased. We’ve got reached out to all these firms, and we’ll replace the story if we hear again.

Threads.com launched its product from stealth in 2019 with $10.5 million in funding. IT was thrown into the limelight after Meta launched Threads, its Twitter-like social community. Notably, Meta additionally had one other product named Threads, an Instagram companion app that began in 2019 and was shut down in 2021.

Threads.com’s crew mentioned that whereas Meta’s social community was on the rise, just a few firms approached the startup to accumulate IT. Ultimately, IT selected Shopify, IT mentioned, for the chance “to tinker at scale”.

“Across the similar time [when Threads.com was considering selling the domain], a handful of firms approached us, questioning if we’d be open to an acquisition. When this occurred previously, we’d politely decline. Nonetheless, this time, issues had been completely different,” the corporate mentioned within the put up. “We weren’t that excited concerning the time IT would take to spend money on a rebrand, and with mind-warping technological advances now being a commodity, we had been enthusiastic about becoming a member of a spot the place we may tinker at scale.”

Final 12 months, Meta opted to make use of Threads.internet as a result of Threads, the enterprise communication startup, already owned Threads.com. Nonetheless, many shoppers nonetheless visited the .com web site and even downloaded the startup’s app earlier than realizing IT wasn’t the social community they had been searching for.

In line with information from analytics agency information.ai on the time, Threads.com’s app noticed 880,000 downloads globally on iOS alone between July 6 and July 12. And on Android the app crossed the mark of one million lifetime downloads with only a few downloads previous to Meta launching its Threads social community.

“Threads is a robust phrase and an web native time period,” Threads co-founder and CEO Rousseau Kazi, who labored at Fb for six years, mentioned in a press release issued to TechCrunch final 12 months.

“Utilizing threads — on varied platforms — is one of the best ways to remain related along with your [.net]work or [.com]pany. Given this, IT comes as no shock that Meta selected a robust label to signify their take at constructing the city sq..”

Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke welcomed Kazi and his crew however didn’t increase on how IT plans to combine the product inside Shopify.