Threads hits 175 mn users on first anniversary

TDT | San Francisco, United States

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Threads, Meta's alternative to X (formerly Twitter), has hit 175 million monthly users a year after its out-ofthe-blue launch. "What a year," Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday on Threads in announcing the platform had reached the threshold.

Threads, which hit app stores on July 5 last year, is a spin-off of Instagram and is intended to be a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, after that platform alienated many users and advertisers following Elon Musk's purchase in 2022.

Threads was rushed out after Musk threatened to limit the amount of posts on X for non-subscribers. This was the latest in a long line of chaotic announcements by the mercurial Tesla founder and Zuckerberg tried to seize the moment. Promoted through their Instagram accounts, more than 100 million people downloaded Threads within a week of its launch in 100 countries, though the EU had to wait until December over regulatory concerns.

The push from Instagram helped Threads become the fastest downloaded app ever, crushing the previous record held by AI sensation ChatGPT. The initial enthusiasm waned however, and Threads has more gradually grown usage, with a big help from the Instagram crossover and exiles turned off by Musk-owned X.