'Twitter-Killer' Threads garners 10 million users in 7 hours: Zuckerberg over the Moon

On the first day of its launch, Mark Zuckerberg’s “Twitter Killer” Threads app managed to garner a whopping 10 million users within 7 hours. The Meta CEO has been 'live-threading' updates about the app's sign-ups. The new Threads app was unveiled on Wednesday as a companion to the popular social media platform Instagram. The roll-out of the app also witnessed Mark Zuckerberg and fellow tech billionaire Elon Musk going toe-to-toe directly for the first time. 

“10 million sign-ups in seven hours,” Zuckerberg wrote on Threads. This was one of the latest updates the Facebook founder posted about his new app. Shortly before that, Zuckerberg had also celebrated when the microblogging site passed 2 million and 5 million sign-ups.

“Glad you're all here on day one. Let's build something great together!” the Meta chief wrote in one of his first posts on the platform. With crossing the 10 million mark in just seven hours, Threads has certainly broken several sign-up records, with Zuckerberg himself managing to garner over 900 thousand followers. 

Threads launch: Let’s put it in perspective 

Threads achieved a new feat in the social media world by surpassing its rivals. To put things into perspective, it took around 852 days for Facebook to reach 10 million users. On the other hand, Threads archnemesis Twitter reached the mark in 780 days, as per the figures released by Forbes. The ease of signing up is part of the reason why Threads has managed to garner success in comparison to its rivals. While Mastodon has a complex sign-up process, Bluesky also remains exclusive as it requires users to have invites to join the app. Truth Social is another app in the mix. 

Threads allow users to sign-up, set up and populate their profile and follow lists using their Instagram accounts. Threads is a microblogging platform that allows users to post up to 500 characters and has many features that are similar to Twitter. Earlier, Zuckerberg said that keeping the platform “friendly” will be his ultimate goal and also the “ultimate key to its success”. When asked if the app has the potential to be bigger than Twitter, Zuckerberg took an optimistic stance.

"It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it,” he asserted landing a veiled jibe at Twitter's inability to breach the 1 billion barrier, unlike some of Meta's own platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. "Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will,” he added.