The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- John Furner
Meta’s new Twitter rival Threads is exploding in popularity, hitting 70 million users and seeing big celebrity names flock to the platform.
Experts have told that the explosion in popularity highlights how Threads poses a ‘serious threat’ to Elon Musk’s social network, which has been in turmoil since the Tesla boss took over.
In the wake of its launch on Thursday at 7pm EST, data from Threads shows that there have been 95 million posts and users of the site have ‘Liked’ Threads 190 million times.
Celebrities including Kris Jenner, Ashley Graham, Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Oprah, and Kylie Jenner have appeared on the platform – along with the Dalai Lama and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Meta’s new Twitter rival Threads is exploding in popularity, hitting 70 million users and seeing big celebrity names flock to the platform
Paris Hilton has set up an account on the social media platform Threads (shown above)
The Dalai Lama has also joined the new platform and has sent a birthday message (Threads)
Arnold Schwarzenegger offered inspirational advice (Threads)
YouTube personality Logan Paul appeared on Threads offering $5,000 to anyone who ‘re-threaded’ his post.
Analysts say the booming growth of Threads is helped by the fact the app is tied to Instagram, which boasts over a billion monthly users.
Users are able to sign up with their existing handles on Instagram and retain some of their following.
Hitting the milestone of 70 million users less than two days after the launch highlights how seriously Threads could disrupt Twitter — which had about 372 million users in April.
Between March 2022 and March 2023, monthly active users of Twitter fell 15 percent on iOS and 14 percent on Android in the U.S., according to SimilarWeb.
The drop came in the wake of chaotic decision-making and rapid changes at Twitter in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the app.
Gizmodo editor-in-chief Dan Ackerman told ABC News: ‘I think people have been looking for an alternative that is kind of Twitter-like but without some of the toxic atmosphere that you have on Twitter now.’
Many celebrities have built up large followings on Threads already, with Kim Kardashian boasting 2.9 million followers and Mark Zuckerberg on 2.1 million.
The Dalai Lama made an appearance on the app, posting a video to celebrate his 88th birthday.
J-Lo has also joined the platform and rapidly racked up 2.1 million followers after posting: ‘I’m a firm believer that true love exists and forever is real. What mantras do you live by?
Celebrities have flocked to the new platform
A celebrity post on the platform
Karlie Kloss has opened a Threads account (Threads)
J-Lo is already quite prolific on Threads
Usher opened an account (Threads)
Ellie Goulding has opened a Threads account (Threads)
Mark Zuckerberg has been increasingly combative about Twitter in his postings both on Threads and Twitter.
He posted: ‘We are definitely focusing on kindness and making this a friendly place.’
Zuckerberg broke his 11-year silence on Twitter to post a popular meme of Spider-Man pointing at each other.
On Threads, he said: ‘It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with one billion plus people on it.’
In a barb to his rival, he said: ‘Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully, we will.’
The launch of Threads was reportedly brought forward to take advantage of a series of chaotic decisions that have alienated both users and advertisers on Twitter.
This includes Musk’s latest move to limit the number of tweets users can read per day.
Reported that Twitter’s advertising revenues in the United States in the five-week period from the start of April 2023 to the first week of May were roughly $88 million — down 59 percent on the previous year.
As Twitter flounders financially, analysts have suggested that Threads could earn up to $6 billion per year.
Justin Patterson, equity research analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets wrote in a research note that adverts on Threads could add up to 5 percent to Meta’s total revenue.
Zuckerberg has promised that there will be no adverts until the product is ‘working well’.
He wrote: ‘Our approach will be the same as all our other products: make the product work well first, then see if we can get it on a clear path to 1 billion people, and only then think about monetization at that point.’
Logan Paul has appeared (Threads)
Ashley Graham has a Threads account (Threads)
Mark Zuckerberg already has two million followers (Threads)
The Kardashians have made a splash on Threads (Threads)
The rapid growth of Threads makes it a ‘serious threat’ to Twitter, says PR and social media expert Rhea Freeman.
She says: ‘The speed of growth has been incredible in a short space of time and the ease of integration with Instagram makes it effortless to sign up.
‘At the moment, there’s a hugely positive vibe on Threads and people are excited about the ‘new’ text-based platform alongside the Instagram features like Hidden Words that should give more “protection” against trolling.
‘Threads is Meta and has Meta’s clout, budget and know-how behind it. There was a huge buzz about it pre-launch and the integration with Instagram- in my opinion- is a massive part of its success.
‘It doesn’t feel like learning a new platform and many have “trust” in Meta and how it works as they’ve been using the platforms for so long.
‘I think the media coverage with Threads has hugely helped it get invaluable Pr too with most people knowing about it even if they’re not particularly into social media. The interesting relationship between Elon and Mark is also another angle which help helped to make Threads real news.’
