Threads Reaches 175 Million Users Milestone in First Year

Threads, Meta Platforms’ newest social media product, has more than 175 million monthly active users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday, just before its one-year anniversary.

A competitor to X, then known as Twitter, Threads debuted on app stores on July 5 of last year, just in time to steal users away from the dominant microblogging platform during Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover. Musk is a millionaire.

It gained 100 million users in less than a week, in part because it was an easy way for users of the popular platform Instagram to set up their Threads profiles. But some early adopters have since dropped off.

“What a year,” Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads. He estimated Threads’ MAUs at more than 150 million in April.

The average monthly users gives only a limited indication of a thread’s popularity, as it doesn’t show important metrics like daily active users or average time spent per user.

According to market research firm Sensor Tower, Threads has struggled to drive engagement on the platform, even as it expands its user base through international expansion and new features.

Sensor Tower data shows that last month, users of the Threads app logged an average of three sessions per day, lasting an average of seven minutes, down about 79% and 65%, respectively, compared to July last year.

Because Threads doesn’t advertise, Meta barely makes any money. The platform recently joined Fediverse, a group of social media sites that support the ActivityPub protocol and allow users to interact across platforms.

“A year after launch, we know what Threads isn’t, but we don’t know what it is,” said eMarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg, adding that a lack of direction and original content could plague its growth.

“Meta must be wondering whether it makes sense to keep Threads as a standalone app or to direct that engagement back to Instagram. The good news is that advertiser interest in the platform is high,” she said.