Barely seven hours of its launch, Meta, the rival to Twitter, has chalked up no fewer than 10 million users across the globe including celebrities Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez.
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, but its release in Europe has been delayed over data privacy concerns.
Threads sought to take advantage of its rival-Twitter’s much-weakened state after a series of chaotic decisions from owner Elon Musk.
Prominent politicians including Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have also joined the app.
“Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads”, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in his first post on the app, along with a fire emoji.
Zuckerberg said the app logged 10 million sign-ups in seven hours.
He further took to Twitter, posting a well-known meme of Spiderman facing off against Spiderman in a humorous jab at the rivalry with Musk and between the two services.
Analysts have argued that Threads’ ties to Instagram might give it a built-in user base and advertising apparatus, adding that this could siphon ad dollars from Twitter at a time when its new CEO is trying to revive its struggling business.
Although Threads launched as a standalone app, users can log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same accounts, potentially making it an easy addition to existing habits for Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users.
Head of Financial Analysis at investment firm AJ Bell, Danni Hewson said: “Investors can’t help but be a little excited about the prospect that Meta really has a ‘Twitter-Killer”.
Others saw the launch of Threads as an opportunity to create a less toxic version of Twitter.
Ocasio-Cortez said in her post: “May this platform have good vibes, strong community, excellent humor, and less harassment.”
Much like Twitter, the app features short text posts that users can like, re-post and reply to, although it does not include any direct message capabilities. Posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos and videos up to five minutes long, a Meta blog post disclosed.
The blog post added that Threads is available in more than 100 countries on both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store.
