Threads, the newest social media platform owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, is making history. It is spreading like wildfire.
Over the course of fewer than five days after it launched last Wednesday, it has reportedly garnered a whopping 100 million users, faster than other Internet platforms. Here are the details of the news.
This number has successfully smashed the record of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is touted as the fastest-growing consumer app. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool that users can chat with to ask questions, request assistance on tasks, get coding done, and so much more.
ChatGPT took two months to reach the 100 million user mark. Meanwhile, TikTok, another popular social media app, took nine months to get that target, while Instagram took two and a half years to reach that mark since it launched.
PVP Live previously released a news report saying Threads has garnered around 30 million downloads a few hours since its launch. Then, Zuckerberg told CBS News that Threads got over 70 million people signed up within the first two days from its launch. That is how fast the spread of Threads is.
For those still unaware of this trend and curious about the hype, you can access Threads via your Instagram account. Your friends may have also notified you on Instagram that they are now using Threads, which might entice you to sign up.
Threads looks so much like Twitter – which is why Twitter is threatening to sue Threads – with a feed consisting mainly of text-based posts, but users may also post photos and videos, as well as converse with the community in real-time.
Threads users can also reply to, repost, or quote others’ posts. Like Twitter, Threads has a character limit on each post but is capped at 500 characters. Users can also share posts from Threads to their Instagram stories. Verified Instagram accounts are automatically verified on Threads.
Late Wednesday last week, Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries, except those in Europe since Meta is still unsure how to deal with the European Union’s data privacy legislation.
Moreover, experts also have a say on this wildfire-like spread of Threads. Business Insider, a multinational financial and business news website, published a news report about how Meta’s Threads is solving the chicken-or-egg problem plaguing new social media startups.
In particular, Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, said in a video posted to his Threads account last Friday that Meta’s newest platform answers the big question that other social startups like BlueSky and Mastodon have to ask themselves.
“If there’s no audience, it’s hard to get the creators — a chicken-egg problem,” Ohanian pointed out. “Now, Instagram has the audience and has the creators. Overnight, it was able to onboard a bunch of people who have an incentive to now create content on Threads because they have a following on Instagram, and some portion of those followers is going to come over to this other platform; they’re gonna see the notifications, they’re gonna want to try it out.”
