Meta’s new social media app Threads, a direct competitor to Elon Musk’s Twitter, has garnered more than 10 million users just seven hours after its debut. The news has positively impacted Meta shares, which are currently up 1.86% in the pre-market session after gaining another 2.92% on Wednesday. 

Meta Launches Threads, an App by Instagram

On Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the initial version of Threads, the company’s new text-based social media app. Threads acts as a standalone app linked to Instagram, allowing users to port over their accounts to the new platform, log in with their existing Instagram credentials, and maintain their handle and verification status.

A significant advantage of Threads is that it does not require users to start from scratch when establishing their community. Instagram will support users in migrating their followers to Threads by sending notifications recommending that they follow them on the new platform. 

Additionally, Threads enables users to maintain their preferences from Instagram while blocking the same accounts blocked on Instagram to provide a secure and personalized experience. Furthermore, Threads allows users to share updates of up to five hundred words, allowing for more extensive content compared to platforms such as Twitter. 

The feed on Threads includes threads posted by followed individuals and suggested content from new creators, providing opportunities to discover fresh perspectives. Posts on Threads can consist of links, photos, and videos up to five minutes long. Users can also easily share a Threads post to an Instagram story or as a link on any platform.

“As with all our products, we’re taking safety seriously, and we’ll enforce Instagram’s Community Guidelines on content and interactions in the app,” Meta said in the announcement, adding:

“Since 2016 we’ve invested more than $16 billion in building up the teams and technologies needed to protect our users, and we remain focused on advancing our industry-leading integrity efforts and investments to protect our community.”

Meta also revealed that the tech giant aims to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol recognized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) — the leading international standards organization for the World Wide Web.

This compatibility would enable Threads to connect seamlessly with other applications supporting the ActivityPub protocol, such as Mastodon and WordPress. This would allow “new types of connections that are simply not possible on most social apps today,” Meta said. 

Threads Attracts 10 Million Users in 7 Hours

In one of his first posts on the new social media platform, Zuckerberg, who goes by the handle “Zuck,” said more than 10 million people have registered for Threads. “10 million sign-ups in seven hours,” Zuckerberg wrote with a “mindblown” emoji.

Before this, the tech mogul revealed that Threads had seen two million registrations in its first two hours and five million in its first four hours. “Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads,” Zuckerberg said in his first post on the platform. 

In October last year, Meta disclosed that Instagram had reached 2 billion active monthly users. In comparison, Twitter is estimated to have 396.5 million users in 2023. Therefore, if Instagram can convert around 20% of users to Threads, the new app will have a bigger user base than Twitter. 

The launch of Threads comes as Twitter, the most popular text-based social media app, has dramatically changed its platform. Just recently, the platform announced that verified accounts could read 8,000 tweets per day, unverified accounts 800, and new unverified accounts 400 per day.

Nevertheless, the launch of Meta’s new social media app has positively impacted the company’s shares, which are currently up 1.86% in the pre-market session. Meta’s stock also ended the latest trading day on Wednesday up by 2.92%. 

Do you think Threads could surpass Twitter in terms of user base? Let us know in the comments below. 

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