Threads, Instagram’s text-based conversation app, has taken social media by storm, breaking many records in the first week of its launch. But after a spectacular start, the addition of users on the platform has slowed down. 

This app, also described as a clone of Twitter, was expected to pose stiff competition to the popular micro-blogging platform.  It started with a bang, hitting 60 million users on the second day. The third day witnessed an addition of 21 million new users to 81 million. The 100 million mark was achieved on the fifth day. 

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But in the next three days, the app has added only 9 million users.  

Fastest million 

Threads is the fastest social media platform to cross one million users. With many Instagram users registering on Threads,the platform took less than one hour to reach a million users.   

In contrast, Twitter, launched in 2006, reached this milestone of reaching a million users over two years. This can be explained by the fact that there was less internet and social media users 17 years ago.   

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Other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, took ten and 2.5 months to cross the million-user mark.  

ChatGPT, launched in November 2022, is the second fastest online service platform behind Threads to reach one million users and took five days. Digital music streaming service Spotify took five months to achieve this feat, while Netflix took a much longer period of 3.5 years.   

How will the growth continue? 

The social media user base is currently very large, at around 4.89 billion worldwide, accounting for more than half of the world’s population. Globally social media usage has been increasing, with an average person spending close to 3 hours on social media in 2023. There is, therefore, room for Threads to grow once it catches on. With Instagram having 2 billion monthly active users, an initial boost could come from this cohort.  

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But as the additional user number is slowing down, Threads could be struggling to reach the user base of its rival platform, Twitter, which has a user base of 560 million. With Twitter users already entrenched and many using the platform to reach a larger audience, it may be some time before the users of Twitter shift their allegiance to the Threads. 

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