Meta’s Threads crosses 139 million monthly active users

Threads' active users: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram Threads has surpassed 130 million monthly active users, as revealed during the company's fourth-quarter earnings report. The text-based social networking app, coming after Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022, competes with various projects such as Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, Post, and Spill.

Zuckerberg acknowledged Threads' steady growth, highlighting that the app has more active users than its initial launch peak. He expressed confidence in Threads becoming a major success, previously stating its potential to reach 1 billion users within a few years.

In the last quarter, Zuckerberg had praised Threads, anticipating its growth. The app had over 100 million monthly active users at that time. Meta's entire app family, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, had a daily usage of 3.19 billion people in Q4, with monthly active users reaching 3.98 billion.

Recent data from Appfigures indicates Threads' rising popularity, with tripled downloads in December, making it the 6th most downloaded app across the Apple App Store and Google Play. In contrast, X, formerly Twitter, faced challenges, ranking 36th.

Threads achieved a record-breaking launch last July, reaching 100 million registered users in its first five days, using Instagram's friend graph. Although interest waned in the fall, Meta's promotion of Threads' viral posts to Facebook users helped reignite growth, securing a spot in the top 10 most downloaded apps globally in December.

Zuckerberg's comments aimed to address concerns during Threads' downturn, countering premature declarations of its demise. Third-party trackers estimate Threads' total users at approximately 160 million.

In terms of earnings, Meta reported $40.1 billion in revenue for Q4 2023, surpassing analysts' estimates. Earnings per share stood at $5.33, exceeding the estimated $4.96, with a net income of $14.02 billion. The full-year 2023 revenue for Meta reached $134.90 billion. Additionally, Meta announced its first cash dividend of $0.50 per share, payable in March to shareholders.