Meta Platforms’ newest social app Threads seems to already be struggling to keep users engaged just two weeks after launching to much fanfare.
Threads, an Instagram-based messaging app designed to foster close relationships with close friends and family, surpassed 100 million sign-ups in its first week. But engagement has quickly fallen off.
Threads’ daily active users dropped from 49 million on July 7, two days after launch, to 23.6 million last Friday, according to analysis firm Similarweb. The app’s average usage time has also plummeted from 21 minutes to just six minutes over the same period.
The rapid decline in user activity suggests that Threads is suffering from some of the common challenges that plague social apps, including struggles to retain new users and generate meaningful engagement beyond the initial hype of launching a new platform.
The signs of trouble continue a string of failures for Meta in launching successful new social platforms beyond its core Facebook and Instagram properties.
Meta will likely need to invest heavily in Threads to resolve issues around user retention, invasive spam messages, and content moderation – none of which guarantee long-term financial returns for the company.
Threads’ early struggles also raise questions about Meta’s renewed efforts to take on Twitter, whose audience of 237 million daily users has proved notoriously difficult for rivals to replicate. So far, Threads has seen a roughly 70% decline in daily users since its first few days.
For now, Threads continues to fly under the radar for most consumers and remains a long shot to seriously threaten Twitter. But its fast fade from the headlines serves as an early cautionary tale for Meta’s social app ambitions.
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