Threads, the new “Twitter killer” app rolled out by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has surpassed 100 million users in less than a week while Elon Musk’s micro-blogging site has seen traffic “tanking,” according to a tech executive.
The initial burst of success for Threads has fueled a war of words between Musk and Zuckerberg.
The Twitter boss referred to his tech rival as a “cuck” and challenged him to a “d–k measuring contest” over the weekend.
Not only have users been signing up to Threads through their Instagram accounts, but they have also been posting prolifically.
Since the system went online Wednesday, Threads users have written more than 95 million posts and clicked “like” on 190 million posts, according to the Verge.
While Threads has gained momentum in its first few days of operation, Twitter’s traffic has reportedly been “tanking,” according to the head of cybersecurity firm Cloudfare.
Matthew Prince, the company CEO, posted a graph to both his Twitter and Threads accounts on Sunday showing the steep decline in traffic.
Prince’s data dovetails with figures released by Similarweb, the web analytics company that said web traffic to Twitter was down by 5% over the course of the first 48 hours after Threads went online.
According to Similarweb, Twitter’s web traffic is down 11% compared to the same period last year.
Zuckerberg said Friday that the launch of Threads has been “way beyond our expectations.”
Zuckerberg wrote on Threads that his service will be a kindler, gentler version of Twitter.
“The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success,” he wrote.
“That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently.”
The head of Instagram has said Threads won’t seek to mimic Twitter’s emphasis on breaking news and current events and that the new app will aim to be a “less angry” environment for users.
“The goal isn’t to replace Twitter,” Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told the Verge.
“The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter.”
Mosseri added: “Politics and hard news are inevitably going to show up on Threads — they have on Instagram as well to some extent — but we’re not going to do anything to encourage those verticals.”
Musk, however, was having none of it.
“It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram,” Musk tweeted over the weekend.
Early Monday, Musk tweeted: “You will get more laughs from this app than everything else combined.”
“But I have to warn you … don’t be shocked … there’s some negative stuff too.”
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