Meta’s Twitter rival Threads has exceeded 10 million signups within the first seven hours, according to (a Thread by) CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The app is now available globally (except in Europe).
Threads is Meta’s text-based conversation app designed to align with Instagram so it will allow users to follow the accounts they follow on the photo-sharing platform and keep the same username, a listing on Apple’s App Store showed. Any users who pre-ordered the app on iOS received a push notification when Threads went live, another move that no doubt boosted signups.
To mark the milestone, Zuckerberg tweeted for the first time in over a decade with the classic Spider-Man standoff picture (showing that unlike Elon Musk, he actually knows how memes work). “10 million signups in seven hours,” he added on Threads.
Zuckerberg spent the first few hours of the platform’s launch replying to new users.
“One thing that’s up is the number of world champion MMA fighters on Threads, especially now that you’re here!” he wrote in a reply to American MMA fighter Jon Jones.
“Round one of this thing is getting off to a good start,” he said in another.
With Threads, Meta is taking on Twitter and alternatives like Mastodon. It’s under the purview of Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, who is planning to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub. That’s the source protocol that powers Mastodon and other decentralized services sometimes collectively referred to as the “Fediverse.”