'Twitter Killer' Threads Struggles to Engage People, Mark Zuckerberg Admits

In the first few weeks after launch, the theme has over 150 million subscribers. Credit: DADO RUVIC/REUTERS

Meta «Twitter Killer» Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the Threads app struggled to keep the attention of millions of users despite a record launch.

On an app that allows people to post messages, images and video, 150 million subscribers. in the first few weeks, making it the fastest growing product in history.

However, Mr. Zuckerberg said that more than half of Threads' users have stopped using Threads since it launched in mid-June.

On Thursday, Meta's chief executive told employees, «Obviously if you have over 100 million subscribers, ideally it would be great to have all or even half of them stay. We're not there yet.»

His comments are consistent with online traffic service SimilarWeb, which reported last week that Threads' daily visits dropped from 49 million to 23.6 million in a week.

New features include embed Adds posts to feeds Instagram users. This week's threads also rolled out a «follow» feed, so users can see the posts of who they want to follow, rather than an algorithm deciding what they see.

Another new feature is automatic translation of messages not in the user's default language.

Zuckerberg's launch of Threads has intensified his rivalry with Elon Musk. Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP

Mr. Zuckerberg launched Threads last month in an attempt to capitalize on Twitter's public discontent under new owner Elon Musk.

Advertisers have left Twitter due to Mr. Musk's ownership, and many users have complained about his changes to the service, including the introduction of fees for features such as blue check checks and unlimited messaging.

Mr. Musk also hastily renamed Twitter to X, causing confusion among users. The site is expected to move to X.com within the next week.

Threads has been called «Twitter's killer» given Meta's financial position and track record of successful apps.

Mr Musk accused Meta of violating Twitter's «intellectual property rights» via Threads, part growing personal rivalry between Mr. Zuckerberg and the Tesla billionaire.

Meta's latest financial results, released on Wednesday, showed an 11 percent jump in revenue as there are now about 3 billion regular Facebook users, about 40% of the world's population.

However, these results cover the period leading up to the launch of Threads and do not include the financial implications of the new application.

Threads is the latest contender for Twitter's attention over the past year. Others include Mastodon, Substack Notes and Bluesky. Everyone saw short-term bursts of interest, but it was difficult to maintain momentum.