Threads, the Twitter rival developed by Meta Platforms, has achieved a significant milestone by attracting 100 million sign-ups within just five days of its launch. This surpasses the previous record set by ChatGPT as the fastest-growing online platform. Since its release last week, Threads has gained attention from celebrities, politicians, and other influential figures, making it the first real competitor to Elon Musk’s microblogging app.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, announced the achievement in a Threads post, highlighting that the demand for the app has been mostly organic, with limited promotion. The rapid growth of Threads is in stark contrast to the consumer application ChatGPT, which took two months to reach 100 million users after its launch earlier this year.
Despite its success, Twitter’s user base has experienced a decline in recent months. According to data from web analytics companies, Twitter’s web traffic dropped by 11% after the Threads launch, compared to a 4% decrease in June. Similarweb’s analysis also suggests that Twitter’s daily active users have decreased since July last year.
Various emerging competitors have attempted to challenge Twitter’s dominance, but most remain relatively small. Mastodon, for example, has approximately 7.7 million users, with only a fraction actively using the service. Bluesky, backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has signed up 265,000 users since its beta launch in February.
Political conservatives have also established their own platforms, including GETTR, with an estimated 144,000 monthly users, and Truth Social, founded by former U.S. President Donald Trump, with around 607,000 monthly users. These platforms, however, have not responded to requests for comment.
Elon Musk, reacting to Threads’ success, has mocked the app and threatened legal action against Meta, claiming that the company used trade secrets and confidential information to develop Threads. Legal experts, however, suggest this may be difficult to prove.
Threads closely resembles Twitter in terms of features, allowing posts of up to 500 characters and supporting links, photos, and videos. However, the app currently lacks direct messaging, a desktop version, hashtags, and keyword search functions. This limits its appeal to advertisers and as a real-time events platform. Nevertheless, the turmoil at Twitter, including recent controversy over tweet limits, may attract users to Threads.
At present, there are no advertisements on the Threads app, and Zuckerberg has emphasized that monetization will only be considered once the app reaches 1 billion users. Meta’s head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has stated that Threads is not meant to replace Twitter but rather focus on lighter subjects like sports, music, fashion, and design. However, political discussions and hard news topics are inevitable on the platform.
Despite challenges, Meta’s shares have seen positive growth, increasing by 1.2% on Monday and over 140% this year.
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