Threads may not be the “Twitter killer” app Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hoped it would be.
The Instagram-linked Threads has seen users flee in droves since it became the toast of the social media world at the beginning of the month, according to analytics company Similarweb,
The most recent data shows Threads ‘ daily active users plummeted to 23.6 million on July 14 after hitting a peak of 49 million on July 7.
Elon Musk-owned Twitter, meanwhile, had about 107 million users on July 14, according to Similarweb, which tracks usage only on the social media platform’s Android app.
Last week, Zuckerberg crowed that his app was downloaded more than 100 million times since launching on July 5. He has been noticeably silent since.
The tech titans have been at war over the rival apps, with the billionaires reportedly ready to duke it out in a cage match brawl.
Musk’s legal team has also threatened to sue Meta for allegedly stealing trade secrets by hiring away former Twitter workers.
But that may be a less pressing issue if Threads’ continues on its current path.
Not only fewer people are logging on to Threads, but those that do appear to be spending less time scrolling through their feeds. Users spent six minutes on the app on July 14, compared with 21 minutes on July 7, the Similarweb data showed.
The average total time spent on Twitter when Threads’ peaked was about 25 minutes, according to Similarweb.
Similarweb found that even on Threads’ best days, Twitter’s daily active users were “virtually unchanged,” though time spent on the Elon Musk-owned platform was down 4.3%.
The Post has sought comment from Meta. Musk has disbanded Twitter’s PR team.
Musk has been fighting the perception that Twitter’s future is at risk. On July 14, he tweeted a graph captioned: “Platform usage up 3.5% week over week.”
The 52-year-old billionaire shared the data days after Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino condemned reports that the platform’s traffic was “tanking” with a post that said: “Last week we had our largest usage day since February.”
“There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it,” she added, appearing to take a jab at Threads.
It’s still too soon to determine whether Threads will be a hit or a flop.
Similarweb’s data, which doesn’t account for Apple users, also showed that Twitter’s retention of new users is down.
On Android, new users who sign up and regularly use Twitter after 30 days dropped from 16% in May 2023 — slightly worse than 19% in May 2022.
In contrast, the analytics firm found that the loyalty of new Instagram users held steady at about 40% year-over-year, which could benefit Threads due to its close ties to Instagram.
Threads require users to have an account on the photo-sharing platform if they want to make a profile on the new app.
The sites’ relationship was cited as a reason for Threads’ initial boom, as Instagram boasts a massive user base of more than 2.35 billion monthly active users.
However, Threads accountholders weren’t thrilled when they found out that in order to ditch their Threads account, they’d also have to delete their Instagram account.
It wasn’t the new app’s only downside.
Similarweb attributed Twitter’s small usage dip earlier this month to users exploring Threads, which proved to be short-lived upon discovering bare-bones features that didn’t make for a “Twitter 2.0” as expected.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri doesn’t seem concerned by the drop-off and denied claims that Threads sought to mimic Twitter.
On July 13, Mosseri said that “our focus right now is not engagement,” but rather “building new features, dialing in performance and improving ranking.”
He also addressed Threads’ “obvious missing features, like a following feed, the edit button and post search” in a separate post.
“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,” Mosseri also posted.
He’s also informed Threads’ dwindling user base that the app wouldn’t invest heavily in news, politics or controversy, which notoriously teems on Twitter.
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg chimed in with: “The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success.”
Facebook made a similar move away from news when it replaced its “Facebook News” tab with “Feeds” last year, which shows users posts from their friends and groups in chronological order rather than posts from news organizations.
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