Meta's Threads Surpasses 100 Million users of ChatGPT's User Growth in 5 days
Threads, Meta Platforms' new microblogging app, achieved a remarkable milestone by attracting over 100 million sign-ups within five days of its launch, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The platform's exponential user growth has surpassed ChatGPT, making it the top contender to challenge Elon Musk's Twitter. Zuckerberg attributed the achievement to organic demand and emphasized that the company hasn't even begun aggressive promotion yet.
Threads' rapid rise to 100 million users has outpaced the growth of OpenAI-owned ChatGPT, which took around two months to achieve similar numbers, as reported by a UBS study. Twitter, which had nearly 240 million monetizable daily active users before Musk's takeover, has experienced a decline in usage since then. Following the Threads launch, Twitter's web traffic dropped by 11% compared to a 4% decline in June, as per Similarweb data.
Internet infrastructure firm Cloudflare's CEO, Matthew Prince, shared a graph on Twitter indicating a similar downward trend in Twitter's traffic and stated that it was "tanking." However, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino mentioned having the platform's "largest usage day" since February without disclosing further details. While Threads is not the first challenger to Twitter, competitors like Mastodon, Bluesky, Truth Social and T2 are still relatively small.
Mastodon has approximately 7.7 million total users, with less than 2 million actively using the service daily. Bluesky, backed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, has gathered 265,000 users since its invite-only beta launch in February and maintains a waitlist of around 2 million. Conservative-oriented social media platforms GETTR and Truth Social, founded by former U.S. President Donald Trump, boast an estimated 144,000 and 607,000 monthly users respectively, according to Similarweb data.
In response to Threads' emergence, Musk ridiculed the app and threatened to sue Meta, claiming that the company used trade secrets and confidential information to develop it. However, legal experts believe proving such claims may be challenging. While Threads bears similarities to Twitter, it currently lacks features like direct messaging, desktop compatibility, hashtags and keyword search functions, limiting its appeal to advertisers and real-time event tracking.
Nevertheless, analysts speculate that Twitter's recent turmoil, including controversy over tweet viewing limits, could work in Threads' favor and attract certain user groups. Presently, the Threads app does not display ads and Zuckerberg stated that monetization plans would only be considered once the platform reaches 1 billion users. Meta's Instagram head, Adam Mosseri, clarified that Threads aims to focus on light topics like sports, music, fashion, and design, even though politics and hard news may inevitably find their way onto the platform.
In the stock market, Meta shares closed 1.2% higher on Monday, showing a year-to-date gain of over 140%.
Threads, Meta Platforms' microblogging app, achieved 100 million sign-ups within five days of launch, outperforming ChatGPT as the fastest-growing platform.
Threads' growth surpassed Twitter's, which experienced declining usage after Elon Musk's takeover.
Competitors like Mastodon, Bluesky, Truth Social, and T2 are still small compared to Threads.
Source: Reuters