Despite initially amassing over 100 million users in an astonishingly short span of five days, Meta’s Threads app has experienced a sharp decline in user engagement. The app, touted as the fastest-growing in history, has encountered significant challenges in retaining its user base.
When Threads was launched in early July, it garnered considerable attention, with an impressive daily active user count of around 49 million. However, the following week witnessed a stark decrease in engagement, as the number of daily active users dropped by half, settling at a mere 23 million. This decline signifies a considerable loss in momentum and raises concerns about the app’s ability to sustain long-term user interest.
One alarming trend is the significant drop-off in users logging into Threads consistently after the first week. While many individuals rushed to sign up initially, a substantial portion of them failed to return on a regular basis. This suggests that the app’s allure and novelty may have worn off quickly, failing to provide a compelling reason for users to continue their engagement.
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In addition to the decline in user numbers, the amount of time spent on Threads has also experienced a drastic reduction. According to a report from Similar Web, the average duration of usage for users in the United States dropped by more than half. On July 6, users spent approximately 20 minutes on the app, but by July 10, that figure had dwindled to just over 8 minutes. This substantial decrease in usage time further highlights the waning interest and diminishing engagement among Threads’ user base.
To put Threads’ performance into perspective, its audience size is a mere 22 percent of the user base of Twitter, a well-established and widely used social media platform. This statistic underscores the considerable gap between Threads and its more established competitors, raising questions about the app’s ability to compete effectively in the social media landscape.
Some of the reasons for Threads’ declining popularity
Threads’ focus on facilitating the creation, reposting, and liking of content, was clearly stated by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. Unlike Twitter, Threads does not prioritize news content. This means that users are primarily limited to interacting with individuals within their existing network, requiring them to start following others from scratch. Consequently, this setup is not ideal for ensuring that thread posts reach a wider audience, beyond family members.
In contrast, Twitter has established itself as a platform renowned for real-time breaking news, attracting millions of users during various events, be it political or entertainment-related. Instagram, on the other hand, lacks a similar ecosystem for real-time news dissemination and this was faced by Threads users as well.
Furthermore, Twitter offers users the ability to maintain anonymity, a feature that Threads lacks due to its direct integration with Instagram. Twitter claims that a significant portion of its user base remains anonymous, and Threads misses out on this segment of daily active users as a result.
As an additional measure, Threads recently implemented a rate limit on posts to combat spam accounts. This same rate limit imposed by Twitter was the very reason why Threads gain popularity and Twitter had to face severe backlash.
In summary, despite an impressive initial surge in user adoption, Meta’s Threads app has faced significant challenges in maintaining user engagement. The sharp decline in daily active users, coupled with a substantial decrease in usage time, highlights the need for Meta to address the issues undermining the app’s appeal and value proposition to ensure its long-term success. Threads also need to build new features to maintain user’s interest in the application.
