Instagram’s ‘Twitter killer’ social media site Threads signs up 30 million users in one day
After mocking Facebook’s Twitter rival Threads, Elon Musk has now threatened to sue the company after 30 million people joined up in 24 hours.
Spare a thought for multi-billionaire Elon Musk this morning.
Imagine the heart-sinking moment he must have had when, upon opening Twitter, he found that two of the highest trending topics were “Threads” and “Twitter Killer”.
In a series of posts Mr Musk mocked Threads, the new rival social media platform from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta. Yet just hours later, he had threatened legal action against Meta and accused it of “cheating” by copying Twitter.
But the numbers speak for themselves. In just the first 24 hours since Threads launched, 30 million people had signed up. It took Twitter 780 days to get to just 10 million users.
And that number didn’t include any users from the European Union where Threads has yet to be given the green light.
Threads’ apparent instantaneous success was helped by it being linked to Instagram. If users are on Insta all their data can be dragged through without fuss.
That’s in contrast to other Twitter rivals including Mastodon, which has to be set up from scratch, and ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky which is invite only.
“Wow, 30 million signs ups,” said Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday.
“Feels like the beginning of something special but we’ve got a lot of work ahead to build up the app”.
Mr Zuckerberg said he hoped millions more people would join Threads, which the company has called “Instagram’s text based conversation app” and which visually is almost identical to Twitter.
“It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it.
“Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”
Elon Musk mocks Threads
Twitter, which Mr Musk bought last year for $66 billion, has about 350 million users. That’s a number which appears to be slightly declining.
Mr Zuckerberg signalled that many of those flocking to Threads were doing so because it was a “friendly” platform.
That’s almost certainly a reference to accusations Twitter has become an increasingly brutal and less diverse social media space since Mr Musk took the reins.
But Mr Musk celebrated Twitter’s new reputation, tweeting on Thursday: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”
It’s debatable how many people seek out social media platforms because of a deep desire to be “attacked by strangers”.
It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
Meta will be hoping Threads will also be attractive to people unwilling to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription.
Those without Twitter Blue have seen their tweets get very little traction. And some believe that’s harmed Twitter with the site’s main feed now mostly featuring subscribers rather than the variety of accounts – and views – that the site previously sported.
Elon Musk fan boys are now in abundance on Twitter.
There’s also the erratic changes to Twitter, such as last week’s limiting of the number of tweets people can see.
Celebs jump on Threads
Several celebs have jumped on Threads including Sex in the City star Sarah Jessica Parker.
In a post on Insta she said she was “giddy with hope” at the possibilities of the site.
And echoing Mr Zuckerberg, she added Threads “might prove to be a platform where folks are kind, thoughtful, don’t feel encouragement to be mean, aggressive or hostile”.
“There are other channels for that,” she said cryptically, perhaps referencing Twitter.
Pop stars Shakira and Jennifer Lopez are also on Threads as is celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey and a slew of influencers who are already adept at Insta.
‘Shocking viable’ – but not without fault
There’s no doubt that for those already on Instagram, Threads is simple to set up.
Once the Threads app is downloaded, all it takes is a few clicks to drag in a user’s picture and biography from Insta.
Threads gives you the option to automatically follow anyone you already follow on Insta as soon as they join the new app.
The feed looks essentially the same as Twitter although perhaps a little cleaner with more white space. Many accounts even have a blue tick to mark them as authentic – which is what Twitter’s blue tick used to be for.
Users can post, repost, like and comment just as on Twitter. But so far there are no hashtags.
Threads allows users to post 500 character messages, as opposed to only 280 characters for non-Twitter Blue subscribers on the other app.
Photo and videos can be uploaded. But there is, so far, no direct messaging or trending stories.
Musk threatens legal action
Mr Musk was quick to point the similarity out, liking a tweet which suggested Threads was just a ctrl+C+V of his app.
But after mocking Threads earlier in the day, Mr Musk then appeared to threaten legal action.
He replied to a tweet that said Twitter was looking to sue Meta due to “systematic, wilful and unlawful misappropriation” of Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property.
“Competition is fine, cheating is not,” added Mr Musk.
Competition is fine, cheating is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
Slate magazine has said Threads could work. “Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter killer is shocking viable,” wrote tech journalist Nitish Pahwa.
Although others have pointed out that you can’t opt to only see accounts you follow and there is no desktop version of Threads.
In addition, once you’ve set up Threads you can’t ditch it without getting rid of Instagram as well.
However, Meta has signalled it’s early days and changes may be made.
Is it a ‘Twitter killer’?
“The biggest advantage Threads has over Twitter? That may be that Threads is not under the thumb of the right-leaning, mercurial mega-billionaire Musk,” wrote entertainment bible Variety in a review.
“But depending on your level of trust in Meta, which has been accused of anti-competitive behaviour and violating privacy laws in multiple countries, it may be a choice between two evils.”
Some are sceptical as to whether Threads is really a “Twitter killer”.
But Threads may not need to be.
With his chaotic changes to Twitter, desperation for people to pay to use the app, his divisive public statements and the seemingly unfettered incendiary tweets from extremist commentators, Mr Musk could be killing Twitter all on his own.
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