Powered by Instagram, Meta's Threads registers 30 million sign ups within a day of launch

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Less than 24 hours after its launch, Meta's Threads app has completed more than 30 million sign-ups, posing a real threat to the dominance of Twitter, Reuters reported. The meteoric numbers are largely powered by simple onboarding offered through Meta's Instagram platform, which boasts over two billion users.

Twitter's survival has been under question since the day billionaire Elon Musk decided to take it private. Although Musk intended to "unlock its true potential", we have seen mainly him whack at everything Twitter was known for, right from content moderation to employee perks.

User experience on the platform has deteriorated mainly under Musk's ownership, and the company has been pushing users to sign up for its Twitter Blue subscription at $8 a month, which in some countries is more than the monthly package for using the internet.

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Meta's move to launch a Twitter rival, Threads, aims to offer an alternate platform for users troubled by Musk's antics as Twitter CEO. Although Twitter is nowhere as big as Meta-owned Instagram or Facebook, it is a niche platform for celebrities, journalists, and users looking to stay updated about news and events worldwide, rather than picturesque holidays that their friends go away on.

Powered by Meta's deep pockets and Instagram's massive base of users, Threads has the potential to dislodge Twitter from its perch, and the high number of sign-ups in less than a day reinforces this thought.

Coincidentally, the launch also came on the heels of former Twitter CE

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Musk imposing limits on tweet views, further alienating users. Advertisers deserted Twitter long ago, and Musk installed a marketing czar in Linda Yaccarino to steady the revenues. However, it is still early days, and we cannot gauge the difference she has been able to make at the company.

Growing above and beyond Twitter

Nothing would please Mark Zuckerberg more than the growth of Threads as people's favorite text-based social media platform ahead of Twitter. But to do so, the app needs to do much more than look like Twitter.

Mastodon and, more recently, Bluesky are prime examples of users still sticking around Twitter despite their frustrations. Meta's Threads need to generate a greater pull than other Twitter alternates to beat them truly. After all, the social media game is about the daily active users and is the number that Zuckerberg will watch.

It can be safely assumed that Meta will work to improve user experience on Threads and offer more features shortly. It also needs to figure out how it plans to fuel the platform after committing that it won't push ads anytime soon and is unlikely to ask for subscriptions.

Twitter does see a threat from Threads and has allegedly threatened to sue Meta for "systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets," Semafor reported.

However, as Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino said, it is the community that makes Twitter, and this is what Threads need to build after significant sign-ups if it wants to emerge as the 'Twitter-killer' it is touted to be.