Unraveling the Web: Shopify's Strategic Acquisition of Threads.com

As the fast-moving digital ecosystem displays constant disruption, acquisitions are more than business deals; they can be critical strategic moves that will create the company of the future. Shopify, the leader in building e-commerce websites, has recently made news regarding its acquisition of Threads.com, a Sequoia-backed competitor to Slack. This is a move toward broadening Shopify’s e-commerce suite that doubles as a diversification of its interests: the science and art of digital communication and collaboration. Entering the strategic world guided by the mythopoetic perspective, what are the qualities relevant in this acquisition? It is not just Shopify buying Threads.com, but how does Shopify combine Threads.com, and with what impact upon the digital ecosystem?

Threads.com: From Stealth to Spotlight

Photo courtesy Threads.comThe startup Threads.com exploded onto the digital comms scene in 2019 after raising $10.5 million to try to take on the likes of Slack. But it was Facebook that flipped the script for the unfamiliar company: in 2020, Meta (formerly Facebook) launched a social network, and a companion app for Instagram, both called Threads. The startup found itself thrust into the international spotlight – and into a domain name dispute.

A Twist of Fate: The Shopify Acquisition

Threads.com has been a going concern since it rebranded in February, but it was the company that had to bend. Neither Shopify nor Threads.com have revealed the terms of the deal, but there’s more to what Shopify was offering them than money alone. ‘To tinker at scale’ — the words Threads.com used in its announcement of their sale to Shopify — implies a chance to innovate and integrate within Shopify’s ecosystem rather than simply provide merchants a Shopify-integrated drop-shipping service. That’s something Threads.com couldn’t afford to turn down.

Why Shopify Chose to OPEN Its Doors to Threads.com

This move shows that Shopify has a distinct vision for the future. It would be an oversimplification to say that Shopify is buying the Threads.com domain or even the Threads company – those are just vessels to transport the resources that Shopify is really investing in: the future of business communication and collaboration, and how those tools will unfold at Shopify. Shopify stands to gain a wealth of knowledge, technologies, and innovations as we open this door wider. Threads.com has the potential to take Shopify from one giant leap to the next, and that leap would be measured in terms of improving Shopify experience for our merchants and their customers.

Exploring the Potential Synergies

And people can’t help but wonder what synergies will emerge from combining Shopify, the nearly $3 billion e-commerce platform, with Threads.com, the communications company with more than 5,500 available lines. How will Shopify integrate Threads.com’s software? Will we see new features and services? We don’t know yet. Maybe Shopify will provide new tools for merchant support. Maybe it will figure out fancy and exciting new ways to communicate with customers. If it creates new e-commerce technologies, they might just be the next generation of tech.

The Impact on the Digital Ecosystem

This purchase – and the potential of communications technologies within the e-commerce space – isn’t just a story about Shopify and Threads.com, but also ripples out across the internet at large. As e-commerce platforms get more feature-complete (with add-ons) and begin to resemble tightly integrated mall experiences, communications functionality might be an important piece of the puzzle. What happens if, building upon the Shopify acquisition of Threads.com, being a platform entails integrating communications technologies in order to be competitive? This might encourage further consolidation and vertical integration of e-commerce services.

Looking Ahead: Open Opportunities and Challenges

The road ahead for Shopify and Threads.com will have its obstacles, as integrating Threads.com’s software and perfecting their vision will take time. There are also considerable opportunities, as the two companies have a chance to redefine e-commerce communication. The possibilities are vast, but so are the complexities. Only time will tell if this acquisition can remake the digital marketplace. Thanks to Shopify for allowing us to tell the story of Threads.com. This post is made possible by Rakuten Viber, a messaging app where you can express yourself globally – for free. We make it easy to connect with friends and family across town and around the world using text, photo, video, voice and stickers. Available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and the web at www.viber.com.

Understanding "Open"

The word ‘open’ has been used throughout this article to mean open to new things or open to new ways, but also to open collaboration, open communication. The meaning of ‘open’ that underpinned the acquisition of Threads.com by Shopify was open to new paths, open to shared exploration, in a spirit of experimentation. I suspect that openness will remain a guiding principle of the development of digital platforms and our use of technology in daily life into the foreseeable future.

To conclude, Shopify’s acquisition of Threads.com is not just the outcome of a business deal, but it is a first move towards a future of increasingly integrated, streamlined, and open e-commerce communication; an interconnected bridging of silos, that we will undoubtedly witness as the relationship between Threads and Shopify develops.