Meta Platform’s Threads launched on July 5—and in the month since, it has declined precipitously after a historic rise.
Key Details
- On July 10, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that 100 million people had signed up for Threads since it launched, setting a historical record for sign-ups.
- A new report from Sensor Tower shows that the app declined severely by July 31, with the daily user count decreasing 82% from its peak.
- Only 8 million users per day are using Threads, down from a peak of 44 million users.
- Active users are also using the app less frequently and for shorter periods of time, with average time dropping to 2.9 minutes per day and an average of 2.6 daily sessions.
- Sensor Towers claims that the daily active user counter is dropping 1% daily.
Why It’s Important
Despite leading one of the most successful app launches of all time, Threads continues to struggle with user retention issues. The app brought on hundreds of major celebrities and was widely embraced for its first two weeks as the app that could dethrone Twitter. However, this wave has crested, and users are getting bored with the app.
It appeared Meta’s hope that it would become a “Twitter-Killer” app and cement itself as a permanent rival to Twitter is dwindling.
In the time since Twitter was renamed to X.com. Elon Musk has continued to engage in the same chaotic antics that have drawn him criticism—installing a massive X sign on top of the Twitter building, subsequently tearing it down, and promising to pay the legal bills for individuals punished for publishing information on his app.
Backing Up A Bit
Part of Thread’s appeal was to create a space with Twitter’s aesthetics but a completely different feeling, with the news feed actively disincentivizing news or negativity. Musk claims that this curation effort has created an air of “false happiness” on his rival platform that harms its authenticity. “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram,” he says.
As we previously reported, Threads was envisioned by Meta Platforms as a means to take advantage of the perceived weakness of Twitter under the leadership of Elon Musk. Meta employees promised that this new app would be “sanely run” and that it would provide a “productive and positive” alternative to Twitter.
The app has been generally beneficial for Meta Platform’s internal morale following months of severe layoffs, Metaverse failures, and tense rivalries with other apps. As Instagram Head Adam Mosseri tells The Washington Post, the seven-month rapid development and successful launch of the app have reinvigorated the company, shifting its focus to developing the app’s identity and creating long-term goals for it to stick around. It continues to roll out new features.