Over 10 Million Users Join Twitter’s Rival, Threads Within Hours Of Launch

Over 10 million users have reportedly joined the new social media platform, Threads within hours of its launch.

Naija News earlier reported that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made a grand entrance to the trending social media platform, Threads.

It was gathered that Threads – owned by Meta which is founded by Mark Zuckerberg – has seen over 10 million people sign up after new strict measures introduced by Elon Musk on Twitter.

In his first post on Threads, President Tinubu wrote: “My fellow Tailors, Idan has landed.”

The new platform is said to be the biggest challenger yet to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which in recent times has faced a lot of issues.

The app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 2300 GMT on Wednesday and will run with no ads for now.

Zuckerberg, who spent the first few hours of the platform’s launch replying to new users wrote on his official Threads account Thursday that “10 million sign-ups in seven hours.”

Accounts were already said to have been active for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Hugh Jackman, as well as media outlets including The Washington Post and The Economist.

“One thing that’s up is the number of world champion MMA fighters on Threads, especially now that you’re here!” he wrote in a reply to American MMA fighter Jon Jones.

“Round one of this thing is getting off to a good start,” he said in another reply.

Threads were said to have been introduced as a clear spin-off of Instagram, which offers a built-in audience of more than two billion users, thereby sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.

Zuckerberg is widely understood to be taking advantage of Musk’s chaotic ownership of Twitter to push out the new product, which Meta hopes will become the go-to communication channel for celebrities, companies and politicians.

Strategic Financial Analyst, Brian Wieser said on Substack that “It’s as simple as that: if an Instagram user with a large number of followers such as Kardashian or a Bieber or a Messi begins posting on Threads regularly, a new platform could quickly thrive.”  

Also, Analyst Jasmine Engberg from Insider Intelligence said Threads only needs one out of four Instagram monthly users “to make it as big as Twitter.

“Twitter users are desperate for an alternative, and Musk has given Zuckerberg an opening.”

However, some users have expressed concerns over the new platform due to criticism of Meta’s method for handling personal data.

This platform understands that the Threads hashtag on Twitter has garnered over a million tweets globally, and some users have expressed concerns about going back to Twitter.

One user, who shared a video of a man sprinting, wrote “10 mins into threads app. Me coming back to Twitter.”

Another user shared an image of Homer Simpson running back and forth between the Twitter and Threads logos.

By midday local time Thursday, Threads were the top trending topic on Japan Twitter, but many users expressed concerns over data privacy.

“Threads is run by Meta, isn’t it? It will definitely leak your real name or the game you are playing, or put you in the list of your workplace company friends,” wrote one user.

Another said: “Meta loves to collect private information and I don’t trust the way it treats private information. I also have the impression that this is a company hated by the EU, so I’m reluctant.”