Threads, Meta Platforms’ newest social media service, now has more than 175 million monthly active users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed on Wednesday, ahead of its one-year anniversary.
A rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, Threads launched on app stores on July 5 last year, aiming to lure users away from the microblogging site during its chaotic takeover by billionaire Elon Musk.
The app attracted 100 million users in less than a week, partly because users of the popular Instagram platform could easily set up their Threads profiles, but some early users later dropped out.
“What a year,” Zuckerberg said in a Threads post. In April, he put Threads MAUs at more than 150 million.
Average monthly users only provide a limited picture of Threads’ popularity, failing to reveal important metrics like the number of daily active users and the average time each user spends in the app.
While Threads has grown its user base through international expansion and new features, the platform is still struggling to drive engagement, according to market research firm Sensor Tower.
Last month, users logged an average of three sessions and seven minutes per day on the Threads app, down about 79% and 65% from July of last year, according to Sensor Tower data.
Threads is ad-free and therefore doesn’t make much money for Meta. The platform recently launched on Fediverse, a group of social media sites that support the ActivityPub protocol and allow users to interact on those platforms.
“A year after launch, we know what Threads isn’t, but we don’t know what Threads is,” said eMarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg, adding that a lack of direction and original content could hinder the app’s growth.
“Meta must be wondering whether to keep Threads as a standalone app or redirect that engagement back to Instagram. The good news is that advertiser interest in the platform is very high,” she said.
(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Alan Barona)
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