Threads goes from hot to not, struggles to attract new users

Threads was the hottest social media app in town merely a few months back, but now it’s struggling to attract new users.

Threads isn't doing too well. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express)

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Meta’s Threads has apparently been a bubble that burst. The platform’s users soared to over 100 million in just 5 days after its launch, but then plummeted. Now the platform is finding it hard to lure new users.

Insider Intelligence’s Threads forecast, published on Tuesday, shows that Threads ranks among the least popular social media platforms, only ahead of Tumblr. The forecast predicts that Threads will have 23.7 million U.S. users in 2023, far behind Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, which will have 177.9 million, 135.2 million and 102.3 million users, respectively.

Its closest rival – X – will have 56.1 million US users in 2023, according to the same forecast. The analyst firm said that Threads will remain “second-to-last among social networks” in the US market until 2025.

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“Threads received an initial boost from Twitter’s missteps, but it can’t rely on X defectors to continue to grow,” says Jasmine Enberg, Insider Intelligence’s principal analyst, in a statement. Enberg adds that if Musk goes ahead with his plan to charge everyone to access X, it could further alienate its user base. These users may then find their way over to Threads.

Threads debuted with a bang, gaining millions of users quickly thanks to its easy sign-up process for existing Instagram users. The messaging app also benefited from being a mainstream alternative to X.

Despite being less feature-rich than X, Meta has been rolling out new features for Threads to make it more appealing, such as search functionality and a desktop version.