Threads turns one with 175 million users. What’s driving the growth?

In a year since its launch, the microblogging app Threads has touched more than 175 million monthly active users.

Taking to the platform, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “What a year!”

Threads, which was launched for public on July 5, 2023, is intended to be a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, after the latter alienated many users and advertisers following Elon Musk's purchase in 2022.


How do the numbers stack up?
Since going private, X no longer releases industry metrics. However, Musk claims that the platform’s user base is growing and seeing more engagement than other platforms.

The tech billionaire said on June 29 that X saw record usage as US President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump attended their first presidential debate on TV.


“We've tracked over 2 billion impressions with over 242 million video views and 2 million posts,” the social media platform claimed.

In comparison, Threads has seen a more gradual growth after the initial enthusiasm waned.

Threads reached 130 million monthly active users in the February quarter, up 30 million from the previous quarter. During the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg had said Threads is “growing steadily”.

To drive engagement, Threads is starting a test where posts from accounts on the microblogging platform will be available on Mastodon and other services that use the ActivityPub protocol. Meta had earlier announced plans to make Threads compatible with open, interoperable social networks.

It also launched its much-awaited API (Application Programming Interface) for Threads on June 18 so developers can build experiences around it. In May, Threads rolled out its own fact-checking programme to rate false content on the platform.

Criticism over content bias

Threads has drawn flack over Meta's decision to downplay news and political content to become a more friendly site than X. The company defines political content broadly as being “potentially related to things like laws, elections, or social topics.”

Users who follow accounts that post political content will still see such content in the normal, algorithmically sorted ways. But by default, users will not see any political content in their feeds, stories or other places where new content is recommended to them.

In a Threads discussion, Instagram head Adam Mosseri made the platform's position clear, saying, “Politics and hard news are important, I don't want to imply otherwise. But my take is, from a platform's perspective, any incremental engagement or revenue they might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let's be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them.”

Rushed launch
Threads had an ‘out-of-the-blue’ rushed launch after X owner Elon Musk threatened to limit the amount of posts on X for non-subscribers.

The platform had a record-breaking launch to the point where it hit 100 million registered users within the first five days of launch in July last year. But the interest faded over time.

Initially promoted via the popular social media app Instagram, Threads gained popularity in 100 countries. It helped Threads become the fastest-downloaded app ever, breaking the previous record held by artificial intelligence sensation ChatGPT.