Introduction
Threads, the social media application aiming to compete with Twitter, has achieved a remarkable feat by surpassing the milestone of 100 million user registrations in less than five days.
Developed by Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Threads has outperformed the previous record set by Open AI’s ChatGPT app. The platform was launched simultaneously on both Apple and Android app stores across 100 countries, including the United Kingdom, last Wednesday.
Expressing his astonishment, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that he “couldn’t believe” how quickly Threads reached this significant achievement.
However, Threads has encountered challenges in the European Union, as it is currently unavailable in mainland Europe due to concerns regarding compliance with EU data privacy regulations. In response to this situation, Thierry Breton, the EU’s industry commissioner, stated during an interview with Franceinfo that taking the necessary time to ensure compliance would be a prudent approach.
Despite the obstacles faced in the EU, Threads has experienced rapid growth. Meta reported that within the first seven hours of launch, the app gained 10 million users, which increased to over 30 million by Thursday morning. Within a span of approximately 24 hours, the user count more than doubled.
Nevertheless, Threads still has a considerable distance to cover in order to match its primary competitor, Twitter, which is estimated to have 350 million users—more than triple the user base of Threads.
Twitter has faced some challenges of its own, as disillusionment among users has grown since Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, took over. Under Musk’s ownership, thousands of job cuts have occurred, and a series of changes have been announced to drive revenue for Twitter.
Legal threat
Twitter has recently taken legal action against its rival, Threads, accusing Meta, the company behind Threads, of unlawfully using Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to develop their app. A lawyer representing Twitter has alleged that Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, engaged in deliberate and unauthorized appropriation of Twitter’s confidential information. In response, Meta has denied these claims.
One of the key differences between Threads and Twitter is the character limit for text posts. Threads allows users to post texts of up to 500 characters, surpassing Twitter’s 280-character limit. Both platforms support the sharing of links, images, and videos, but they have different rules regarding content restrictions. Threads prohibits nudity and explicit NSFW (not-safe-for-work) images, whereas Twitter has its own set of guidelines.
Furthermore, Threads is currently only available as a mobile app, with no desktop version introduced yet.
