Meta's text platform Threads catches 100 million people

July 11, 2023: On Twitter, User traffic has slowed since the takeoff of Meta’s text-based forum Threads, which has reached 100 million sign-ups since its debut the previous week.

On Wednesday, Threads established in the U.S. are being touted by Meta executives such as Instagram chief Adam Mosseri as a more positive “public square” for residents “that never really embraced Twitter.” So far, users are on board.

“Threads reached 100 million sign-ups over the weekend. That’s mostly organic demand, and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been five days!” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on Monday.

On Sunday, Twitter appears to have taken a collision. Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, shared a screenshot to Twitter showing that traffic on the platform.

According to Similarweb, a data company specializing in web analytics, web traffic to Twitter was down 5% for the first two full days Threads were generally open compared to the previous week. The company said Twitter’s web traffic is down 11% compared to the same days in 2022.

The booming growth on Threads is supported by the fact that it is tied to an existing social network, Meta’s Instagram. Users can sign up with their existing handles on Instagram and retain some of their following as others sign up for the app.

Threads called the 100 million milestone even faster than OpenAI’s generative chatbot ChatGPT, which surpassed 100 million monthly users in two months.

The app still controls much room to grow, having yet to launch in Europe, where Mosseri expressed there is still some regulatory complexity to navigate. If Threads can retain its user base, it could solidify its position as a real competitor for Twitter. It reported nearly 238 million monetizable daily engaged users in its last quarterly earnings announcement as a public company earlier summer.

Twitter owner Elon Musk appears to have already shown some concern about Threads, as his longtime lawyer Alex Spiro wrote a letter to Meta accusing the company of “unlawful misappropriation” of trade secrets.

Musk and Zuckerberg were even taking shots at one another over the weekend, as Zuckerberg ridiculed Musk’s tweet style, and Musk reached Zuckerberg a degrading name.