Within the first few hours of its launch, more than 10 million individuals joined up for Threads, a Twitter competitor from Meta, according to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company.
The largest threat to Elon Musk-owned Twitter thus far is Threads, which, despite its enormous challenges, has seen a number of prospective rivals emerge but has not yet succeeded in displacing one of social media’s most recognisable firms.
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In order to avoid the challenge of beginning from scratch, Threads was released as a clear spin-off of Instagram, which has a built-in audience of more than two billion users.
The new tool, which Meta hopes will become the preferred means of communication for celebrities, businesses, and politicians, is being promoted by Zuckerberg, who is generally believed to be taking advantage of Musk’s tumultuous ownership of Twitter.
READ ALSO: Meta To Launch A “Threads” App Similar To Twitter
At 2300 GMT on Wednesday, the app went live on the Apple and Android app stores in 100 different countries. It is now available without advertisements.
“10 million sign ups in seven hours,” Zuckerberg posted on his official Threads account on Thursday.
Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, and other well-known figures had accounts already set up, as did The Washington Post and The Economist. In the early hours of the platform’s introduction, Zuckerberg devoted his time responding to new users.
“One thing that’s up is the number of world champion MMA fighters on Threads, especially now that you’re here!” he wrote in a reply to American MMA fighter Jon Jones.
“Round one of this thing is getting off to a good start,” he said in another.
Musk and Zuckerberg are well-known adversaries who have even proposed meeting in a battle cage to square off. Zuckerberg also fired a shot in Musk’s direction.
Zuckerberg uploaded a meme of Spiderman pointing at Spiderman in his first Twitter in more than a decade, ostensibly alluding to how similar the two sites are.
It’ll take some time, but I believe there should be a public chats app with more than 1 billion users, he replied back on Threads. Twitter has had the chance to do this, but hasn’t quite succeeded. I think we will.
According to Twitter, there are more than 200 million users every day.
To become “as big as Twitter,” according to Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Engberg, Threads just needs one out of every four monthly Instagram users.
“Twitter users are desperate for an alternative, and Musk has given Zuckerberg an opening,” she continued.
Threads’ goal, according to Instagram chief executive Adam Mosseri, is to create “an open and friendly platform for conversations.”
“The best thing you can do if you want that too is be kind,”, he advised.
