Despite what you may have heard, Threads is doing just fine, thank you very much.
At least that's what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says. During the company's Q3 earnings report, Zuckerberg revealed that its Twitter alternative has just shy of 100 million monthly active users.
"We're three months in now, and I'm very happy with the trajectory," he said. "There are just under 100 million monthly actives at this point, and we're now getting to the point where we’re going to be focusing on growing the community further."
Threads exploded out of the gate in July thanks in part to its tight integration with Instagram. Millions of people fatigued by Elon Musk's approach to Twitter (which he shortly thereafter rebranded as X) poked around Meta's version, but it lacked some key features at launch.
Since then, Threads has rolled out a web version, a free edit button, and has bolstered its search and discoverability features. (It's also sharing your Threads on Facebook, which not everyone loves.) But according to app-monitoring services, Threads traffic has steadily declined.
Zuckerberg does not seem concerned. "From what we can tell, people love it so far," he said on this week's earnings call. "I've thought for a long time that there should be a billion-person public conversations app that's a bit more positive, and I think that if we keep at this for a few more years then I think we have a good chance of achieving our vision there.
"Aside from Generative AI, Threads also remains a compelling long-term opportunity and we’re excited to build on the strong product momentum we have going into next year," he added.
Zuckerberg also insisted that "our other major long-term focus is the metaverse," pointing to products that will help make that a reality, like the Quest 3, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and its Horizon virtual world.
Over on X, Musk is looking to develop an "everything app" that includes payments. But his social network is also struggling with a traffic downturn, according to data from Similarweb. Analysts expect a large X user exodus by 2024 due to "technical issues and the proliferation of hateful or other unsavory content." In July, Musk put Twitter monthly users around 540 million.
