Meta’s Threads App Gains 10 Million Users in First Seven Hours, CEO Mark Zuckerberg Announces

Threads, the social media app recently launched by Meta to rival Twitter, garnered an impressive ten million sign-ups within its first seven hours, according to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta.

Writing on the new platform shortly after its debut on Wednesday, Zuckerberg expressed his excitement, stating that Threads would enable users to “build something great together.” He further revealed that the app had already attracted ten million sign-ups in just seven hours.

While Threads is available for download on the Apple and Android online stores in approximately 100 countries, its release in the European Union has been delayed due to privacy concerns.

The app has been hailed as a formidable challenger to Twitter’s dominance in the social media market. Twitter has faced criticism following several changes implemented on the platform since Elon Musk’s multi-billion-dollar takeover last year.

In response to the question of whether Threads would surpass Twitter’s popularity, Zuckerberg responded on Thursday, “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversation app with 1 billion+ people on it.” He expressed hope that Threads would fill this gap, highlighting Twitter’s missed opportunity.

Threads shares many features with Twitter but allows users to compose messages of up to 500 characters, surpassing Twitter’s 280-character limit. Twitter’s paid subscription service, Twitter Blue, offers a 10,000-character limit.

Responding to a Threads post from American entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, also known as Gary Vee, Zuckerberg assured that the development team is focused on kindness and creating a friendly environment. Taking a subtle jab at Elon Musk’s occasionally acerbic posts on Twitter, Zuckerberg stated that “s**t-posting” is not his personal style.

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Compared to standalone social media challengers such as BlueSky and Mastodon, Threads has an advantage as it can leverage Meta-owned Instagram’s global audience of two billion people. Industry expert Jasmine Engberg from Insider Intelligence commented that Threads would only need a quarter of Instagram users to migrate to the platform to rival Twitter’s size, as reported by AdWeek on Wednesday.

The availability of Threads in the European Union remains uncertain as Brussels raises concerns about Meta’s handling of personal data on its Facebook and Instagram platforms. Meta relies on user data for targeted advertising, which contributes significantly to its multi-billion-dollar annual profits.

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