As Threads blows out its first birthday candle, we look at whether it has managed to attract users – and whether brands are willing to reach them on the platform
Launched in July 2023, Meta’s Threads was widely seen as a new home for an audience disillusioned with Elon Musk’s takeover of X, which at that point was still known as Twitter.
Indeed, rivalry between the two platforms sparked the threat of legal action from Musk, although an actual lawsuit doesn’t appear to have materialized since then.
Amid huge publicity, the Threads app was made available in over 100 countries at launch. In just 16 hours, it became the fastest-downloaded app of all time, netting 30 million downloads. Four-and-a-half days later, it had crossed the 100-million-user mark.
But one year later, where does it stand? Has it ended up being the refuge for disgruntled X users that many believed it would be? Or has the huge initial adoption been followed by indifference?
A growing audience – but an uncertain identity
Following an announcement earlier in the year that Threads had managed to attract over 130 million users, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed earlier this month that the platform now boasted 175 million monthly users.
It may make the 1 billion figure Zuckerberg hopes to hit seem like something that will take time yet, but it’s a significant achievement nonetheless.
A lot of this success was undoubtedly due to the marketing targeted toward existing Instagram users within the Instagram app, where it continues to be heavily promoted. Indeed, having an Instagram account continues to be a prerequisite for new users.
However, acquiring users is only part of Meta’s overall challenge; motivating them to create content specifically for Threads is another.
As a text-first platform, Threads currently resembles X more than Instagram, with conversation rather than media sharing being the focus.
But the ease with which Instagram users can share the same content across both Instagram and Threads, facilitated by a simple yes/no toggle, may prevent Threads from developing its own unique identity.
This, in turn, may make it more difficult for people to understand its purpose. Why go to Threads if the same content is available on a more established platform?
Developing a unique identity for Threads is also important for brands, specifically those wanting to understand whether it’s worth their time and effort to cultivate a following and develop platform-specific content. After all, many of these will already be heavily invested in other platforms, ones where they may already have established audiences.
Are brands weaving their way into Threads?
Given that Threads is only a year old, it’s not surprising that many brands have smaller followings here compared to other platforms.
Nevertheless, some of those that have embraced the platform have quickly managed to build substantial audiences.
For instance, the National Geographic account, which posts almost daily, has 13.2 million followers at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, sports giant Nike has attracted 11.6 million followers, while Marvel Entertainment boasts 8.7 million followers. The NBA (below) is not far behind, having recently surpassed 8.6 million followers.
Post by @nbaView on Threads
As is the case on other social platforms, however, it’s individuals that grab all the top spots, with Neymar Jr (17.3 million), Selena Gomez (16.2 million) and Kylie Jenner (14.2 million) heading the list.
Are advertisers interested in Threads?
Meta’s ability to attract users and brands to Threads also determines whether advertisers would be willing to add it to their media mix.
Mark Zuckerberg did initially state that Meta would only consider monetization once it was on a clear path to this 1 billion figure. Earlier this year, however, it was reported that advertisers would be able to jump in in the second half of the year.
If Meta does offer this, advertisers would need to have a better understanding of the platform and its audience beyond monthly figures.
Exactly who these users are and what they’re interested in is a primary consideration. How often these 175 million monthly users are actually engaging with the platform is another.
X is thought to have between 200-250 million daily users, with the average user spending over 32 minutes per day on the platform.
Meanwhile, over on Threads, the 14 minutes per day users were reported to have been spending in the month of its launch was said to have dropped to just three minutes per day one month later.
This was, of course, well before it had amassed its current audience, so it’s possible this is no longer the case – for better or worse.
What happens next?
A year isn’t a long time for any social network. Facebook, for example, has been around for 20 years, while Instagram will celebrate its 14th birthday later this year, and both have been subject to a multitude of changes since they each celebrated their first birthday.
Many familiar social media platform features, such as sharing, reposting, commenting, and so on, are already in place on Threads, but regular updates continue to shape it, with small differences in functionality continuing to give it more of its own flavor.
What happens next depends on several factors, both inside and outside of Meta’s control.
One of these is Threads’ ability to recommend interesting accounts to follow.
While Meta makes it easy to follow people a user already follows on Instagram, it’s unlikely that the average user will want to follow the exact same accounts on both platforms.
There are many reasons for this, from the different nature of each platform to the ways audiences are encouraged to use each one, and even the level of anonymity that a user may desire on one but not the other.
Related to this is the way in which Meta deals with political content. While posting political content on Threads is not restricted per se, Meta is clearly cautious about Threads becoming the kind of place that gave X – or more specifically, Twitter, when it was still Twitter – a bad name.
Meta has stated that it wants Instagram and Threads to be “a great experience for everyone”. For this reason, it does not recommend content about politics from accounts that aren’t being followed by the user on default settings.
Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, has said that “showing you political takes from people you don’t follow … [is] fundamentally going to create more problems than it solves.”
So it could be that, despite the popularity of political and news-based accounts on Threads, the platform might succeed in fostering an audience with fewer reasons to engage in arguments.
And that, in turn, should help to give advertisers confidence their brand will be seen in a positive, brand-appropriate environment.
Another thing that would be relevant to prospective advertisers, but for different reasons, is the ongoing saga between the US government and TikTok.
With a ban on TikTok on government devices already in force; a wider ban supported by both the current administration and Donald Trump; and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance making it clear it has no intention to sell the app (which would allow it to continue to operate in the US), it may be that brands currently targeting TikTok users are mulling over the possibility of adding Threads to their mix when the opportunity becomes available. That said, it’s unclear how much overlap there may be between the two audiences.
In any case, the next couple of years are likely to be vital ones for the platform. In this time, Threads should establish its identity and give both its existing audience and brands a better idea of what it’s for and who it’s for. Assuming it can continue to attract new users – and crucially, ones willing to engage and create content with some frequency – it may well succeed as a viable and vibrant alternative to X.
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