Meta’s Twitter competitor Threads has taken a big bite out of Twitter’s web traffic, one week after launching.
Having already surpassed 100 million sign-ups, Threads is poised to become an actual competitor to Twitter.
“Threads reached 100 million sign ups over the weekend. That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been 5 days!” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted Monday.
Thread’s user base was likely buoyed by being attached to Instagram. Users who have an Instagram account are prompted if they would like to sign up for Threads when they open the app. This could indicate that not all Threads users are as active as Twitter users.
However, experts have pointed to a significant dip in web traffic as contrary evidence.
Web analytics company Similarweb reported that Twitter’s web traffic is down 11% from where it was last year and 5% down from last week, when Threads was not online.
The booming numbers from Meta could get much bigger. The app has not yet launched in Europe, where Meta deals with ever-increasing legal troubles.
Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, seems to be keenly aware of the threat that Threads poses. Last week, his lawyer Alex Spiro accused Meta in the letter of poaching former Twitter staff and using trade secrets to get Threads off the ground.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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