• Threads has become an overnight success for Meta, amassing 100 million sign-ups in just four days.
• It was launched as Twitter’s popularity begins to wane after a series of unpopular decisions.
• It is still too early to tell if Threads will be the “Twitter Killer” app, but it is definitely the Blue Bird’s biggest challenger to date.

The highly publicised launch of Instagram’s Threads app, Meta’s first home-spun social media platform since Facebook, has changed the social media landscape with Mark Zuckerberg’s iron grip on internet communities stronger than ever.

Threads is effectively a Twitter clone, and bases most of its design elements and engagement structure on the Blue Bird app, which is now owned by billionaire Elon Musk. So much so that a Twitter lawyer has accused Meta of stealing its ex-employees and thus its secrets to create Threads, even though the app was in production since 2019.

This accusation is seen by many as an admission from Twitter that Threads is a serious threat to its business model, and users are comparing the rice of Threads and the chaotic descent of Twitter to the situation around MySpace and Facebook in the early aughts.

Threads saw 100 million users sign up in a matter of days after launch, becoming among the fastest-growing social media ever. In comparison, Twitter has seen around 250 million users since launching in 2006.

While Twitter has some advantages over the still-developing Threads, like trackable hashtags and an advanced search function, a series of baffling decisions by its owner and a perceived lean towards right-wing concepts, ideas and pundits has led to unhappy users on the platform.

Enter Threads, espousing positivity and human connection, amassing a hundred million followers in just four days. But has Threads affected Twitter’s traffic?

According to the CEO of American online services provider Cloudflare, Twitter traffic is in a sharp decline.

Matthew Prince indicated on Twitter, using data tracked by Cloudflare’s domain rankings. The rankings show that from January 2023 to July 2023, Twitter has dropped from the 32nd most-visited website on Earth down to the 39th.

The latest sharp drop in users for July coincides with the launch of Threads and Twitter’s latest suite of decisions, including a daily Tweet viewing limit of 600 for non-paying users and 6 000 for subscribers.

In June, Musk tweeted that the platform had hit an all-time record in “user seconds.”

Although it’s still too early to tell if Threads will go down as the “Twitter Killer.” Early evidence suggests that users are flocking to the platform which scratching that Twitter itch.

Meanwhile, Instagram is working hard on improving Threads. BleepingComputer reports that Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s head and person in charge of Threads, has confirmed that the platform will receive Twitter-style hashtags, a trending page, automatic archiving functions and even an edit button in the near future.

Ostensibly, all free of charge.