The new Threads app from Meta has already surpassed 100 million users, reaching the milestone much quicker than ChatGPT, in just a matter of days.
Within the first two hours, there were 2 million users, which climbed to 5 million, 10 million, 30 million and then 70 million.
Mark Zuckerberg says the launch was “way beyond our expectations.”
He posted a Threads post confirming the milestone, saying it was “mostly organic.”
Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri also posted noting it only took five days to reach the milestone.
Users are signing up and posting, with reports of over 95 million posts, and around 190 million likes shared within the app.
Meta aren’t expecting to replace Twitter, but have said they aren’t going to actively encourage politics and hard news, but instead be a place for conversation-based discussion.
Meta “couldn’t be more psyched” however “we don’t even know if this thing is retentive yet.”
As of last November, Twitter had around 260 million monetisable daily active users, with more recent reports saying around 535 million monetisable monthly active users.
Data has suggested Twitter’s traffic has been on a downward spiral in recent months, and it appears that Threads will be a threat to Twitter.
Mark Zuckerberg confirmed Threads hit 100 million signups in under a week since the launch.
Broader markets have risen but many suggest larger tech companies were a weak spot. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon.com, and Alphabet shares were all down, whereas Meta’s rose over 1%.
Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino said, “Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread… but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves! Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.”
Just days after Threads debuted, Musk accused Zuckerberg of using Twitter’s trade secrets, and poaching employees. A spokesperson for Meta claimed no one of the Threads team was a former Twitter employee.
Twitter has gone through many changes since the takeover by Musk, in efforts to increase subscription revenue and cut costs.
So far, the company began charging users for identity verification, and put limits on how many tweets users could view on a daily basis.
There have also been technical problems since the takeover, with advertisers pulling back over concerns around content moderation.
Meta have also suffered setbacks including the mishandling of millions of user data, and it was found that Meta’s platforms were riddled with flaws causing harm.
However, the new platform’s growth suggests Meta’s users are willing to give it a chance.
Analyst Mark Mahaney said, “Whether they actually become engaged users or not, it will take a while to know. Threads is owned by a company that’s very good at helping marketers effectively target and run campaigns against relevant customers. They can do it better than Twitter can.”
“Twitter has been around for a very long time and has survived a lot of different versions of problems. I don’t think Twitter is going away.”
