META Stock Price Prediction: How Far Can Threads Boost Meta Platforms?

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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) stock zoomed ahead in this year’s first half, but can it keep going? The answer is definitely yes, as Meta Platforms’ answer to Twitter could prove to be a major revenue generator.

However, this story runs deeper than just a competition between two short-message sharing apps. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO (and Twitter owner) Elon Musk are visionaries and rivals.

So, it will be interesting to find out whether Zuckerberg can score a win against Musk with Meta Platforms’ new, buzz worthy social media platform.

A New Catalyst for META Stock

After a momentous run in the first half of 2023, what will prompt the next leg up in META stock? Will it be Meta Platforms’ involvement with artificial intelligence? Or maybe the company’s virtual reality (VR) headsets will prove to be a literal game-changer?

Those will be contributing factors, no doubt. Yet, the most buzz worthy development in this year’s second half just might be Meta Platforms’ introduction of Threads. This is a short-form message posting app that’s linked to Instagram and is like Twitter.

According to Zuckerberg (per a CNN report), the Threads app garnered “10 million sign-ups within seven hours of its launch.”

This could grow to a veritable army of Threads users, as Insider Intelligence (via Yahoo! Finance) estimates that over “30 million users will leave” Twitter within “the two years following Musk’s buyout of” the platform.

It’s Really About Zuckerberg vs. Musk

Why would so many users potentially abandon Twitter in favor of Threads? Perhaps, it’s because they don’t like the way Musk is running Twitter. For example, under Musk’s leadership, users can simply buy blue check marks on Twitter, instead of having to earn them as influencers.

Furthermore, Twitter reportedly experienced an outage and then imposed a temporary limit on the number of tweets that Twitter’s users could read.

Threads now has an opportunity to capture some market share if disgruntled users and advertisers leave Twitter.

Most importantly, Meta Platforms and Threads should benefit from the publicity as the rivalry and between Zuckerberg and Musk heats up.

Musk recently tweeted, “I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options.” Then, Musk proposed a cage-fighting match with Zuckerberg. In response, Zuckerberg tweeted a cartoon image depicting one Spider-Man pointing at another Spider-Man.

META Stock Has More Room to Rally

The rivalry between Zuckerberg and Musk might be considered juvenile, but there’s a lot of money at stake here. Meta Platforms stands to gain massive revenue if Threads can capture market share from Twitter.

And, as the old saying goes, practically any publicity is good publicity. So, Zuckerberg probably has a winner on its hands with Threads and that’s positive for Meta Platforms’ stakeholders.

All in all, this ongoing story should benefit Meta Platforms in 2023’s second half, so be prepared for META stock to easily reach $350 before the year is over.

On the date of publication, David Moadel did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

David Moadel has provided compelling content – and crossed the occasional line – on behalf of Motley Fool, Crush the Street, Market Realist, TalkMarkets, TipRanks, Benzinga, and (of course) InvestorPlace.com. He also serves as the chief analyst and market researcher for Portfolio Wealth Global and hosts the popular financial YouTube channel Looking at the Markets.