After hitting 18-month high ahead of launch, Meta stock up 1% after millions sign up on Threads
Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which has seen a series of potential competitors emerge but not yet replace one of social media's most iconic companies, despite its recent struggles. The Threads app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries and will run with no ads for now. Twitter, by comparison, had 229 million monthly active users in May 2022, according to a statement made before Musk's buyout of the social media platform.
"10 million sign ups in seven hours," Zuckerberg wrote on his official Threads account on Thursday. Accounts were already active for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Hugh Jackman, as well as media outlets including The Washington Post and The Economist. Zuckerberg spent the first few hours of the platform's launch replying to new users.
While Threads launched as a standalone app but was introduced as a clear spin-off of Instagram. Threads offers a built-in audience of more than two billion users (Instagram boasts of more than 2 billion monthly active users), sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch. Users can log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same accounts, potentially making it an easy addition to existing the habits for Instagram users. At least four brokerages raised their price target on Meta, whose shares have already more than doubled in value this year, according to reports.
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