two hours after pressing the launch button on Wednesday threadsInstagram’s new app for real-time, public conversations, Mark Zuckerberg Posted His latest creation was downloaded by over two million people.
That was just the beginning.
After the next two hours, five million people Threads was downloaded. By the time Mr. Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, went to sleep on Wednesday night, the number of downloads had reached 10 million. When he woke up on Thursday morning, the app had been downloaded more than 30 million times, he said.
In less than a day, Threads – aimed as a rival to Twitter – has taken the crown of the fastest-downloaded app ever. it went easy chatgptAccording to OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, the chatbot, which was downloaded one million times within its first five days. and it’s on the move ChatGPT’s 100 million users It was the fastest ever to reach that number in under two months, according to analytics firm SimilarWeb.
Some of Twitter’s most followed users – such as Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Gates, Shakira and Oprah Winfrey – immediately joined the threads and started posting. The atmosphere was celebratory, with users writing welcome messages and looking forward to reading each other’s posts. At one point, the new app was so inundated with users that it began to appear unstable.
“It’s as good a start as we could have hoped for!” Mr Zuckerberg, whose company owns Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp, said in a post on Threads on Thursday. He later said, “It feels like the beginning of something special.”
The early momentum underscored people’s desire to find an alternative to Twitter, the 18-year-old digital town square that has long been a central place for online public conversation. since Elon Musk buys Twitter In the past year, the billionaire has made changes that have angered longtime users of the social platform, especially those who don’t care for his laissez-faire approach to content moderation. Twitter has also suffered due to this more interruptions and bug.
Mr. Musk is not taking Mr. Zuckerberg’s actions quietly. On Thursday, Twitter lawyers sent a letter to Meta threatening legal action, accusing it of using trade secrets to build threads, and asking the social network to preserve internal documents related to the dispute between the two companies. asked for. the letter was told earlier by semaphore. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.
Threads was a surprise hit for the meta with a desperately needed win after probing spreading misinformation and other toxic content on the Internet. While Mr Zuckerberg’s social network was celebrated in its early days, it has been criticized in recent years by regulators, activists and users for how the company handles data and its products. Meta still faces questions about its move into the emerging immersive digital world the so-called metaverse,
But the week was one of respite — at least briefly — for Mr. Zuckerberg and his company. Inside Meta on Wednesday evening, employees rejoiced at the launch of Threads, sharing inside jokes and memes with each other, according to screenshots of conversations seen by The New York Times.
Over the past few days, celebrities, brands and influencers were given early access to the app, a move by Meta to usher in a free culture of fun and discussion. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said in an interview Wednesday that he wants to make threads a “friendly place” for public conversation.
Actress Jennifer Lopez added an emoji of musical notes to a Threads post, saying, “Can’t get enough of your Threads.” In her first Threads post, Ms. DeGeneres wrote, “Welcome to Gay Twitter!”
Yet such initial momentum does not necessarily translate into long-term engagement and success. As of the last public figures cited by the company last year, Twitter had more than 250 million daily users. And some Threads users have been troubled by an issue due to which users may have to delete their connected Instagram account if they want to delete their Threads account. Instagram said it is considering alternative ways for Threads users to deactivate their accounts.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
