Thread probably had the best start of any program to date and 100 million downloads in the first five days of its launch earlier this month, but new information suggests that the road ahead may be rocky.
On its best day on July 7, just days after its launch, Twitter-like Threads reached more than 49 million daily users on Android worldwide, but by July 14 that number had already dropped to around half of 23.6 million, according to research and analytics company SimilarWeb.
Threads users in the US have also been less engaged with the app, showing a peak usage of 21 minutes on July 7th, dropping to 6 minutes on July 14th.
Interestingly, in the first two days of the availability of Threads, web traffic to twitter.com decreased by 5% compared to the previous week. And while traffic to Twitter has rebounded for the most recent 7 days, it’s still down 11% year-over-year, according to SimilarWeb.
The analytics company noted that most of its research is based on Android usage because it’s easier to track compared to iOS, but the findings are consistent. similar research on Threads has happened since its inception.
“In the race to replace Twitter, Threads is off to a strong start but still has a long way to go to win the lasting loyalty of those who participate in a social network dominated by posts and linked posts,” said SimilarWeb in a blog. post on Monday. “Despite attracting more attention than other Twitter platforms such as open source Mastodon or still beta Bluesky, The Threads spin-off from Meta’s Instagram business unit does not have customers who return regularly.”
In another sign of trouble to come, Adam Moseri, Instagram boss who owns Meta, he said Monday that, like Twitter should have done a few weeks ago, the new program is supposed to limit the number of users due to the high level of spam on the platform. However, while Twitter has introduced more visible limits on visible tweets, Mosseri told Threads users to get in touch if the limits interfere with users’ experience, suggesting that workarounds can be provided as they continue to deal with bots.
The start of Threads’ flight was mainly due to two reasons – its close links with Instagram, which made it easy to set up an account and create a group, and people’s frustration with Twitter, which has faced many disruptions since Elon Musk acquired the company. in October. A few weeks after its launch, Threads seems to have stabilized and is now looking at steady growth, although it is still too early to say that the app is still a threat to Twitter.
Editor’s Note