Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s new Twitter competitor, has not only broken records for signups, but the site also seems to keep many of those users active.
A new data analysis suggests that Threads, which builds on Meta’s Instagram user base, already has a quarter of Twitter’s weekly active user numbers — with about 93 million active users worldwide in its first week to Twitter’s 353 million.
It’s another win for the site, that one amassed over 150 million global downloads in just six days of launch and has been dubbed the Twitter killer.
Daily, weekly, and monthly “active users” are a metric used by internet analytics companies to differentiate between the number of people who actually visit or interact with a particular site or app, and the number of people who simply logged in but have a dormant account has.
Threads has already far surpassed Twitter’s previous closest US rival, former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social, with the new site now boasting 86 times the weekly active user base of Trump’s conservative microblogging platform.
Threads continues to gain new users at a record pace, reaching 150 million global downloads in just six days – 5.5. times faster than the previous record holder, Pokémon Go. Analytics company data.ai pulled this information from combined iOS and Google Play downloads
Threads reached 10 million users within hours of its launch on July 6, 2023. By the end of its first week online, the microblogging app had 109 million users worldwide
But the news wasn’t all positive for Meta’s new social media network.
The novelty seems to be wearing off for some early adopters of Threads: Time spent on the platform has dropped 50 percent in the past week, from 20 minutes of use to just 10 minutes.
And that trend seems to be true for Threads’ most famous users as well. Of the 20 most-followed Twitter accounts, only nine have also set up a Threads account, and not all of those nine accounts have even bothered to post on the new service once.
The new data crunching reports come from app intelligence companies data.ai And Sensor toweras said CNBC.
According to Sensor Tower’s tracking of the app, Threads’ daily active users fell early last week — about 20 percent on Tuesday and Wednesday from the site’s Saturday highs.
To put that into perspective, it took Twitter five years, not just weeks, to reach the 75 to 93 million active users that Threads already manages.
In addition, Threads’ record of total global downloads continues to break records for speed and volume.
Threads reached 150 million worldwide downloads 5.5. times faster than the previous record holder, Niantic’s Pokémon Go, which first became available to a cultural frenzy in July 2016.
India now contributed 33 percent of the global total of Threads downloads, much more than the distant second Brazil (22 percent) and third the US (16 percent). India used to be Twitter’s second largest community in terms of monthly active users and total downloads
Threads broke huge industry records by reaching one million users in just a few hours
Of the 20 most followed Twitter accounts – including people and organizations – only nine have also created a Threads account. Not all of those nine accounts are active on
In a sign of the global exodus, Twitter has seen the highest number of defectors to Threads from India, which was previously Twitter’s second largest community in terms of monthly active users and total downloads.
India now contributed 33 percent of the global total of Threads downloads, far more new users than distant second Brazil with 22 percent of the global total and third the United States, who contributed 16 percent.
Mexico and Japan also contributed significantly to Threads’ record numbers, with 8 percent and 5 percent of total downloads, respectively.
And this pace is likely to continue as Meta manages to iron out the regulatory issues that have kept the new app out of the European Union due to privacy concerns and Meta’s troubled history with data collection.
Despite government policy, Europeans have pushed to make the jump to Threads, forcing Meta itself to identify and block all users in the EU who try to download and enjoy Threads by hiding their EU IP addresses via a virtual private network (VPN).
Privacy tweaks are just one of many implementations Meta has planned to keep Threads’ historic momentum going.
Just a few days ago, Threads released its first major update that expanded the app’s compatibility with Apple’s iOS 17, among other tweaks.
Threads is also rumored to be adding an edit button, similar to Musk’s Twitter; full support for users managing multiple accounts; and a next feed in the near future.
But perhaps the biggest groundbreaking step is Threads’ promised integration with Twitter’s other microblogging rivals, such as Mastodon, which are built on the open, decentralized social networking protocol ActivityPub.
Data.ai’s new report was quick to point out that, despite declining user activity, Threads’ rapid growth is historic.
While the world’s top social apps have weekly active users from half a billion years into their life cycle. report their insights. Threads attracting nearly 100 million WAU [weekly active users] in this early period is unprecedented.’
The app data company said Threads had reached its current peak of about 93 million active users around the world, just ahead of Meta’s official July 10 announcement that the new social platform had passed the 100 million login mark.