The monthly active user base of the Threads social media platform, which is part of the ownership structure of the Meta technology giant, has exceeded 175 million people.
The mentioned information was released last Wednesday, July 3, by Meta Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. A message with relevant content was posted on his Threads account.
The process of functioning of the social media platform, the number of monthly active users of which, as Mark Zuckerberg reported, exceeded 175 million, was launched on July 5, 2023. In fact, the mentioned indicator is the result of the first year of Threads’ existence.
So far, the mentioned social media platform is inferior to other platforms of a similar category, including those within the Meta ownership structure, regarding the number of monthly active users. For example, the corresponding result of X, formerly known as Twitter, for May of the current year was 600 million. The owner of the specified platform, Elon Musk published this information. The number of monthly active Facebook users as of April of the current year was 3.06 billion. This information was made public by Statista, an online platform that specializes in data gathering and visualization. The number of monthly active Instagram users as of April 2024 was 2 billion. This information was also made public by Statista.
Threads is currently available to users in over 100 countries. At the beginning of the launch of this virtual platform, the developers announced features such as the ability to publish text materials up to 500 characters long. These materials may also contain links. Moreover, Threads provides users with the ability to post photos and videos that do not exceed five minutes in length.
In a Meta press release announcing the launch of the new social media platform, it was noted that for the technology giant, Threads’ vision is to take what Instagram does best and extend it to text, creating a virtual space designed to generate forms expressing certain ideas. In this case, users can follow and connect with friends and creators. It is also possible to subscribe to accounts that differ from each other in thematic content. This interaction in the virtual space at the level of the relationship format, where there are suppliers of information materials and consumers of content, forms something like an online community uniting people with common interests.
The number of Threads users reached 10 million in the first seven hours after the launch of this social media platform. Mark Zuckerberg said he expected a better result. Also, at the time of the launch of the new social media platform, Meta CEO repeatedly stated his intention to challenge X in the plane of competition. Moreover, Mark Zuckerberg said that Threads should become an app for public conversations that will have 1 billion users. Almost a year after the launch of the mentioned social media platform, the specified goal has not become a reality. Besides, Threads is still a significant distance away from 1 billion users.
In April of the current year, Mark Zuckerberg, during Meta’s quarterly earnings report, stated that the mentioned social media platform had more than 150 million monthly active users, and this figure showed good growth. He also noted that the development of Threads is carried out according to the expected trajectory.
Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said that the mentioned social media platform continues to see good traction as it provides valuable features and expands the community.
In May of the current year, Threads launched testing of the Pinned Columns feature on its web app. This feature provides users with the ability to pin up to 100 channels on their homepage to provide them with the ability to easily navigate to accounts from people they subscribe to, to accounts recommended by the algorithm, or to accounts based on keywords or topics previously specified.
Jasmine Enberg, an eMarketer analyst, says Meta must be wondering whether it makes sense to keep Threads as a standalone app or to direct that engagement back to Instagram. The expert noted that advertisers’ interest in this social media platform is at a high level. At the same time, there are no ads in Threads. It is possible that this is a temporary peculiarity of the social media platform. Moreover, the media, citing some Meta employees, report that the possibility of launching ads in Threads is currently being considered. There is no final decision on the relevant issue yet. Moreover, at the conceptual level, there is no vision of what it means to launch an advertisement in the context of the functioning of the mentioned social media platform.
At the same time, Threads can potentially be interesting for advertisers. For example, X is often accused of publishing and distributing content that is unacceptable from the point of view of moral and ethical standards. Last summer, Australian Commissioner for Cybersecurity Julie Inman Grant stated that the mentioned virtual platform allows the posting of information materials containing propaganda of intolerance and the idea of absolute rejection of other points of view.
Also, the media, citing insiders among Meta employees, report that the development of Threads is carried out mainly as a result of the promotion of this app on Instagram. This actually means that the social media platform, which turns one year old this week, has not yet been able to become a self-sufficient functional system capable of autonomously ensuring its successful existence. It should also be recognized that the Threads concept still does not contain anything principally or fundamentally new in the context of what can be described as generally accepted and leading ideas in the social media industry. The formation of virtual communities and communication of interests is somehow implied by all digital spaces of the mentioned category.
At the same time, the first year of Threads’ existence should not be characterized as a collapse or an example of a major failure. A slow start can lead to a history of lasting and lasting or even permanent success. At the same time, the triumph at an early stage of activity does not guarantee that the corresponding state of affairs will continue in the long term.
It is also worth noting that the figure of 175 million users is still a positive result and indicates a certain interest on the part of the user audience. As part of the promotion of Threads, according to insiders, Meta has focused on markets where, according to Mark Zuckerberg, there is an opportunity to gain some consumers from X. One of these markets is Japan.
The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, stated during the Threads launch that he was interested in whether the app would become culturally relevant and form a user base of several million people. A year later, the mentioned social media platform showed growth. As for the development of Threads in the context of such an aspect as cultural relevance, it is too early to answer this question, since it actually implies a status formed over a long period.
