It has been an interesting couple of weeks since Meta launched Threads, their rival to Twitter. It is safe to say it has been an eventful month since Meta unveiled Threads. Over this time, Twitter CEO, Elon Musk threatened to sue Meta and challenged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight (amongst other things), Threads outpaced the fastest-growing consumer application in history, and some are already predicting the imminent demise of Threads based on some early indications of usage drop-off.
Threads had a productive launch on July 6th. It only took Threads roughly 90 minutes after launch to reach 1 million users. It then took just 5 days to reach 100 million users. This is without Threads currently being available in the EU due to privacy concerns. By comparison, Instagram took roughly two and a half years to reach that mark. TikTok took nine months to reach 100 million users. ChatGPT, the fastest-growing consumer application in history, took just two months.
However, it is unfair to compare the growth of Threads to these other platforms. This is not a new platform from an unknown company looking to build an audience. Meta has made it incredibly easy for its users to access Threads using their Instagram login credentials. This is essentially an extension of Instagram, which reportedly has over 2.35 billion monthly active users.
The process to join is easy, and the user numbers are encouraging, but it is still very early. Analytic data from Sensor Tower and Similarweb have indicated a drop in usage one week after the initial launch. Sensor Tower data reveals a 20% drop in daily activity users, with an estimated reduction of time spent in the app by 50%. Similarweb has reported comparable numbers.
Context is important here. While the usage number dropped, app intelligence platform data.ai suggests the total active daily user base for Threads now sits at around 20% of that of Twitter. That is an impressive number given the infancy of Threads, compared to Twitter, which has been around roughly 17 years longer.
Audience usage is always going to dip early in the life of any platform, as a number of people flock to the app at the start to see what it is like. There will always be natural attrition as the initial excitement subsides and the innovators and early adopters move on to the next new thing to explore. It is only once the early majority start exploring Threads that we will really start to see the engagement metrics that can help us predict the possible future of this app.
Some commentators have prematurely called Threads a disappointment and destined to fail. Criticism of the app so far has been predicated on a platform offering little innovation, excitement, or interesting content. But this is to be expected for a platform that is only a couple of weeks old. It is unsurprising that there is limited content on a platform built around user-generated content. The audience has not been there long enough yet to build out a robust content library to explore. Additionally, a number of features still do not exist on the platform. Features like being able to edit posts, applying hashtags, direct messaging, and a chronological feed are not yet available but are within Twitter. These features are unlikely to bring audiences in but will make the usage of the platform more user-friendly which might attract some.
Elon Musk’s constant challenges towards Meta and Mark Zuckerberg highlight the threat Musk must see from Threads. While there is nothing ground-breaking or innovative within Threads and the platform is not perfect by any means, the early signs are encouraging. Its user numbers might be slightly misleading given the seamless integration with Instagram, but the active audience numbers two weeks in position Threads as a real challenger to Twitter.