Two hours after pressing the launch button on Wednesday topicInstagram’s new app for real-time, public chats, Mark Zuckerberg post that more than two million people have downloaded his latest work.
That was just the beginning.
Two hours later, five million people Downloaded Theme. By the time Mr. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, went to bed Wednesday night, the number of downloads had reached 10 million. When he woke up Thursday morning, the app had been downloaded more than 30 million times, he said.
In less than a day, Threads – which was targeted as a Twitter rival – appeared to have taken the crown as the fastest downloaded app ever. It easily goes beyond ChatGPT, the chatbot, was downloaded a million times within the first five days, according to OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. And it’s on the verge of breaking through ChatGPT hits 100 million users within two months, which is the fastest time to reach that number, according to analytics firm Similarweb.
Some of the most followed users on Twitter — such as Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Gates, Shakira, and Oprah Winfrey — immediately joined the Thread and started posting. The atmosphere was celebratory, with users writing welcome messages and expressing eagerness to read each other’s posts. At one point, the new app was so inundated with users that it seemed unstable.
“This is as good a start as we can expect!” Mr. Zuckerberg, which owns Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp, said in a post on Threads on Thursday. Then he added, “It feels like the beginning of something special.”
The initial impetus underlined people’s desire to find an alternative to Twitter, the 18-year-old digital town square that has long been a central venue for public online conversations. . From Elon Musk bought Twitter last year, the billionaire made changes that angered longtime users of the social platform, especially those unconcerned with his liberal approach to content moderation. Twitter has also been more power outages and error.
Mr. Musk did not disdain Mr. Zuckerberg’s actions. On Thursday, Twitter’s lawyers sent Meta a letter threatening legal action, accusing the site of using trade secrets to build Thread and asking the social network to keep the documents. internally related to a dispute between the two companies. The letter is previous report by Semafor. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.
The theme was a surprise hit for Meta, which was in dire need of a win after being heavily scrutinized. spread misinformation and other malicious content on the internet. While Mr. Zuckerberg’s social network was celebrated in its early days, in recent years it has been criticized by regulators, activists and users for the way the company handles data. materials and their products. Meta has also faced questions about its move to the still emerging immersive digital world the so-called metaverse.
But this week is an amnesty – at least for the short term – for Mr. Zuckerberg and his company. Inside Meta on Wednesday night, employees rejoiced at the launch of Threads, sharing inside jokes and memes with each other, according to screenshots of the chats seen by The New York Times.
Celebrities, brands and influencers have been given early access to the app over the past few days, a move by Meta to kickstart a culture of fun and free discussion. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said in an interview on Wednesday that he wants Threads to be a “friendly place” for public conversation.
Actress Jennifer Lopez said in a post on Threads, adding an emoji of musical notes: “Couldn’t see enough of your threads. Ms. DeGeneres, in her first Topic post, wrote, “Welcome to Gay Twitter!”
However, such initial momentum does not necessarily translate into long-term success and engagement. Twitter has more than 250 million daily users, according to the last public figures cited by the company last year. And some Theme users have had issues that may require users to delete their connected Instagram accounts if they wish to delete their Themes account. Instagram says it’s looking at other ways Thread users can deactivate their accounts.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
