Has Elon’s laughter ceased? Reports indicate that Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘Twitter-killer’ app, Threads, experienced a sharp 50% decline in daily users within a week of its explosive launch. Despite this setback, there are reasons for Elon Musk to remain concerned. Following an unprecedented launch, Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads app garnered over 100 million users in just five days, breaking records and earning it the moniker “Twitter killer.” Nevertheless, recent data from industry sources reveals that many of these users have not sustained their activity on the platform since its initial surge. Threads reached its peak on July 7 with 49 million active users.
However, by July 14, this number plummeted by 50% to 23.6 million, based on SimilarWeb’s analysis. Consequently, within a week of its zenith, the platform retained only a quarter of its users who continued to interact with the app daily. Even Mark Zuckerberg conceded that the number of returning users falls within the “tens of millions.” This indicates that the so-called “Twitter killer” has significant room for improvement. While the private company X (formerly Twitter) does not disclose its user statistics, its latest earnings report hints at around 238 million daily active users. Elon Musk reported that this number recently surged to 259.4 million. Effectively, Threads boasts a mere 10% of the daily active users of its chief competitor. Nonetheless, this doesn’t necessarily guarantee that Musk will emerge victorious. There’s evidence suggesting that rivals like Threads are siphoning users and engagement away from the traditional social app. Within the first two days of Threads’ launch, web traffic to X saw a 5% drop, as indicated by SimilarWeb’s data.
Although there’s been some recovery, year-over-year traffic remains 11% lower. The fact that a rival app managed to capture 10% of X’s user base within weeks should raise concerns. Zuckerberg’s track record of successfully scaling social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, each with billions of daily active users, highlights his growth potential. Meta is actively working to enhance its user offerings in a bid to retain its users.
On the other hand, Elon Musk recently revealed a 50% revenue drop for X, coupled with negative cash flow due to heavy debt. His decision to reduce content moderation might have deterred advertisers, resulting in a surge of hate speech and violent content on the platform, as noted by Bloomberg. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban took a jab at Musk on X, saying “Go red, no bread,” while sharing Musk’s announcement about revenue decline. Cuban has consistently criticized Musk’s policies ever since he took over the social media brand last year. He’s emphasized that Musk’s influence on the platform’s reach resembles a form of State intervention. Cuban, an active user of both Threads and X, remains an intriguing participant in this evolving social media landscape.
