Threads Achieves Over 50 Million Subscriptions Within One Day of Launch: The Rapid Growth of Meta’s New Social Media App

Threads, the new app by Meta that competes with Twitter, has experienced tremendous growth on its first day of launch, leveraging the massive user base of Instagram.

According to screenshots shared by users displaying their join information, the text-based social media platform has already amassed over 50 million users.

Within hours of making the app available to the general public, The Verge reported that users had already shared over 95 million posts and 190 million likes, based on internal company data.

Threads’ significant growth can be attributed to its association with an existing social network, Instagram, users can sign up using their current Instagram accounts and maintain some of their followers.

Jasmine Enberg, Principal Analyst at Insider Intelligence, stated, “Meta needs one in four Instagram users to make Threads as big as Twitter’s monthly user base.”

Twitter reported nearly 238 million daily active users who could generate revenue in its last quarterly earnings report as a publicly traded company last summer.

Threads still has ample room for growth, especially after its launch in European Union countries, Instagram’s head noted that there are still regulatory complexities that prevent its availability there.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has already expressed concerns about Threads, with his lawyer, Alex Spiro, accusing Meta of “unlawful misappropriation” of trade secrets.

Andy Stone, Meta’s Communications Director, responded to the letter regarding Threads, stating, “No one on the Threads engineering team was previously employed by Twitter.”

However, growth alone will not be sufficient to make Threads a future alternative to Twitter, the app must also demonstrate its ability to maintain user engagement.

While Twitter is known as the preferred platform for journalists, politicians, and academics, a broader audience and focus may be available to Threads due to its association with Instagram, Instagram offers diverse use cases such as photo and video sharing, both short and long-form.

Additionally, Meta has taken steps to de-emphasize political content on Facebook, if this policy carries over to Threads, it would differentiate it from Twitter.

Many advertisers who have worked with Meta may also welcome an alternative to Twitter, especially if they perceive it as a safer option for their brand, particularly since the company has stated that Instagram’s community guidelines will apply to Threads as well.