Threads passes the 100 million user mark – a threat to Twitter ? ⚔️

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Launched barely a week ago, Threads has just passed the 100 million registered user mark. While this figure is impressive, it alone does not guarantee the success of the social network.

Threads stronger than Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even ChatGPT?😮

It took Threads just 5 days to reach the 100 million user mark. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, congratulated Threads on the achievement. And rightly so, as this milestone was reached without any promotion.

To understand the scale of this statistic, it’s interesting to compare it with other web giants. It took ChatGPT 2 months, TikTok 9 months, Instagram 2.5 years, Facebook 4.5 years and Twitter 5 years to reach this number of users. Clearly, Meta has succeeded in its launch.

While this number represents an important milestone, it is not an absolute guarantee of success. Indeed, the 100 million represents the number of registered users, not the number of active users on the application. By comparison, in 2023, Twitter will have over 1.3 billion accounts for « only » 556 million active users. Although Threads has got off to a good start, it remains to be seen how the platform will evolve in the future.

Threads vs. Twitter: differences that will influence their future ⚔️

Before considering the future of Thread, it’s important to look back at the present, and in particular at the context in which the Threads application was launched. We don’t know exactly when the Threads project was initiated internally at Meta, but given its relative immaturity, notably the absence of certain features, we can assume that it was linked to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter.

As mentioned in our previous article on Thread (which you can read by clicking here), advertisers, some subscribers and the industry as a whole are highly critical of the billionaire’s management of the platform and have been looking for an alternative for some time. According to some media reports, the app’s launch was brought forward to take advantage of Twitter’s recent problems.

However, there’s no guarantee that all Twitter users will migrate to Threads. Although Threads currently lacks Twitter-like features such as search by theme and hashtags that have contributed to the bluebird’s success, these features may be added in future updates.

What will be difficult to replicate is the atmosphere and relative freedom of expression of Twitter. It’s important to remember that Threads is linked to Instagram, which in turn belongs to Meta, Facebook’s parent company. Meta is known for its relatively strict rules on content regulation on its various social networks. I’m not sure Twittos would be too keen on that.

What’s more, Meta is not known for respecting users’ privacy. Just look at the list of information collected by the application. On the App Store and Play Store, you can consult the detailed list of information collected by the application, which is quite long. In particular, it shows that Threads collects financial and health information from users. But what for?

Finally, is it desirable to have all the major social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) and messaging services (WhatsApp, Messenger) under the umbrella of a single company? Nothing is less certain.

Sources:  Mark Zuckerberg sur Threads, Data Reportal