On July 5, 2023, Facebook parent Meta launched its own microblogging platform called Threads to rival that of Elon Musk’s Twitter.

One year on, the founder and chairman of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, said that Threads now has 175 million monthly active users.

The growth of Threads hasn’t been the Twitter slayer that it was positioned as at its launch. While Threads reached 100 million users just five days after it launched, it failed to keep up that momentum as several users began to turn away from the platform after the initial hype over it faded.

However, the network has continued growing and reported 130 million users in February and 150 million in April.

To mark its first anniversary, Threads has introduced new custom icons. The mobile app was updated to give users a choice of five icons and will be available until July 12.

Instagram reports that 63 per cent of all posts on Threads are text-only. One in four posts on the network contains at least one photo. Meta employees have said that in recent months much of Threads’ growth is still coming from it being promoted inside Instagram, reported The Verge.

To ensure that Threads becomes a commercially successful division within Meta, media reports have indicated that it could turn on ads within the platform next year.

Zuckerberg has previously stated that he believes Threads can grow to have one billion users within the next few years.