Threads Gains 100 Million Users, Twitter Traffic 'Tanking'
It hasn't taken long for Threads to make an impact on Twitter. Less than a week after Mark Zuckerberg's rival platform launched, it's already surpassed 100 million users as people seem to be—at least for now—making an exodus from Twitter.
Zuckerberg announced the milestone in a post on his new platform on Monday. "Threads reached 100 million sign ups over the weekend," the 39-year-old CEO wrote. "That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been five days!"
Meanwhile, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince pointed out on Sunday that Twitter's traffic seems to be "tanking" in the wake of the Threads launch.
Twitter traffic tanking. https://t.co/KSIXqNsu40 pic.twitter.com/mLlbuXVR6r
— Matthew Prince ???? (@eastdakota) July 9, 2023
The web data and analytics company Similarweb reported similar findings, in that Twitter's traffic was down five percent from the previous week in the first two full days that Threads was available. Likewise, traffic was down 11 percent from the same two days in 2022, as the platform has experienced an overall decline since Elon Musk acquired the company.
User retention is also taking a hit on Twitter. The percentage of new Android users who continue to regularly use the app after 30 days has dropped from 19 percent in May 2022 to 16 percent in May 2023. Comparatively, Instagram held steady at about 40 percent when it came to keeping people engaged.
Yet, Meta executives maintain that the intention of Threads was not to replace Twitter, but offer an alternative.
"The goal isn’t to replace Twitter," Instagram chief Adam Mosseri wrote on Threads after the launch. “The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter."
But that hasn't stopped the two rival billionaires from sniping at each other. On the day Threads launched, Zuckerberg egged on Musk by tweeting the Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme in a rare instance of him using the platform.
— Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) July 6, 2023
Naturally, it didn't take long for Musk to take the bait, responding to a screenshot of Zuckerberg laughing at him with the Wendy's Thread account with a colorful insult, and then proposing a "literal dick measuring contest."
I propose a literal dick measuring contest ????
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 10, 2023
It's clear that there's no love lost between Zuckerberg and Musk, who are reportedly still planning to face off in a cage match, which may or may not take place at the Colosseum in Rome. Save it for the ring, boys.