100 million users in five days: What is behind the “Threads” platform

Yarn, fiber, thread: the translation of the English word thread into German spits out many terms. In Internet forums, this is used to describe topics of all kinds that users can exchange ideas about.

This principle is behind the US platform “Threads”, which has been available for a week, belongs to the meta group of entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg and is preparing to break records in social media. With Gerald Petz, the OÖN analyze the potential of the platform. He is a course director for marketing and
E-business at the Steyr campus of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.

User numbers: Threads appeared in 100 countries last Wednesday ? with the exception of Europe, where it is skewered on legal grounds. The network gained 100 million users in five days, online data service Quiver Quantitative announced earlier this week. In doing so, the platform trumped the record for the fastest-growing application: previously that was the game Pokemon Go, which took 29 days to delight 100 million people. The comparisons with other platforms and types of communication (see graphic) are also clear. Petz imports that? with a big but: “100 million users is an announcement, but not the yardstick for a company whose platforms have billions of users.”

Meta Corporation: The expert is addressing the market power of Meta. The social network originated from Facebook and also combines the photo platform Instagram and the short message service WhatsApp. All together have almost seven billion monthly active users. On Facebook there are 2.9 billion, on WhatsApp and Instagram each around two billion? also because many users use multiple platforms. One can assume that Meta boss Zuckerberg wants to penetrate similar dimensions with threads, says Petz. The starting advantage is given, because the use of threads is coupled with an Instagram account. Users can log in and transfer contacts with the same credentials, the application is free.

Contents: In terms of form and design, Threads is strongly based on the short message service Twitter. Text posts can be up to 500 characters long and can include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes long. Posts can be shared, quoted or commented on like the competitor. Difference: There are no hashtags for threads, and the search function has so far not been able to search for topics, only for users. “The resemblance to Twitter is striking,” says Petz. Twitter owner Elon Musk reacted coldly to the new competitor and threatened to sue. “Competition is good, cheating is not,” Musk wrote. He accused Meta of hiring ex-Twitter employees and thus gaining internal knowledge and confidential information.

Availability: Threads is not yet fully developed. In Europe, the platform is waiting to be launched. One reason is legal problems. The EU places higher demands on data protection than US authorities, especially through the General Data Protection Regulation. When threads will start in Europe is open. Petz expects that Meta will “tweak and make concessions” with Threads in order to get started in Europe soon: “I would be surprised if they ignore such a large market as Europe.”