Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s new social network, surpassed 100 million users in five days.
It surpassed ChatGPT, which reached that mark in two months, while TikTok did it in nine months. Its main rival, Twitter, has some 200 million users.
The social network Threads, launched by Meta to rival Twitter, has surpassed 100 million users in less than five days, according to specialized sites on Monday.
It is the most successful launch in the history of technology applications, surpassing ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-based conversational bot.
ChatGPT reached 100 million users in two months, while TikTok did it in nine months.
Instagram, launched in 2010, took two and a half years to reach that figure.
Threads has been available in the Apple and Android app stores of more than 100 countries since Wednesday, although not in the European Union, where the giant Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram), maintains divergences with the authorities on the right to data protection.
Twitter has about 200 million users, according to estimates by observers.
Bought by billionaire Elon Musk last year, the network has suffered technical mishaps.
Musk fired thousands of Twitter employees following the controversy that erupted in the United States, where the company maintained close contacts with authorities to combat fake news.
The eccentric billionaire also created controversy by imposing payments on Twitter users for services that were previously free.
Although competitors have already emerged and tried to take advantage of this turbulence, none has managed to dethrone Twitter.
Threads instead is a serious rival because it takes advantage of Instagram’s huge user base, regularly used by more than a billion people.
According to online monitoring service Quiver Quantitative, Threads surpassed 100 million users as of 7:00 GMT on Monday.
Other sites estimate that the app may have surpassed that figure earlier, based on downloads detected among Instagram users.
Threads uses a Twitter-like interface, and Musk has threatened to sue Meta for alleged intellectual property theft.
Threads, launched by Meta to rival Twitter
Musk recently challenged Meta patron Mark Zuckerberg to a fight, who claimed he accepted the challenge.
People starting to explore Threads are already making their own observations.
“People call it a Twitter clone, but I think there are some key differences between the products,” said Alexandra Popken, Twitter’s former director of trust and safety operations.
One difference, she thinks, will probably be the people who use it. In Threads, “you’re essentially taking your Instagram audience and putting them into a new text-based app, whereas Twitter is sort of a niche audience for politicians, celebrities and news junkies,” she said.
However, while Threads’ creators have said they are not particularly interested in turning it into a political forum, it is likely to appeal to journalists and politicians, among others, who are looking for an alternative to Twitter.
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said Threads is not intended to replace Twitter.
“The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter,” he said.
Politics and hard news will inevitably appear on Threads, he acknowledged, “but we’re not going to do anything to encourage those verticals.”