Threads Microblogging Service Sees Rapid Growth Amid Social Media Landscape

Threads, Meta’s microblogging service, is experiencing a significant surge in popularity as users flock to the app over rivals like X. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Threads now boasts 320 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 300 million last month. The app had 275 million monthly active users in November.

Threads Maintains Lead Amid Crowded Social Media Landscape

The increase in MAUs, although modest, serves as an indicator that Threads is maintaining its status as a preferred platform for many users amid a crowded landscape of social media apps, including Bluesky, Mastodon, X, and others. In comparison, Bluesky is experiencing a slowdown in growth, with an increase of less than 10% month-over-month in December 2024, following a remarkable 189% growth in November, according to analytics firm Similarweb. Bluesky now has a total of 26.44 million users.

Threads Continues to Attract New Users

Additionally, Zuckerberg noted that Threads is adding more than 1 million daily signups. Meta has been working to draw in more users to Threads by regularly introducing features such as scheduling posts and allowing people to see the number of views on their individual posts. Additionally, it seems that Meta may be looking to leverage the expanding reach of Threads with a new ad experiment in the U.S. and Japan.

Threads Enhances Recommendation Systems and Custom Feeds

During Wednesday’s call, Meta’s chief financial officer, Susan Li, also highlighted that Threads is making several updates to its recommendation systems, which aim to "prioritize more recent posts, surface content from top creators, and ensure people see more of the content from accounts they follow." The company will also continue enhancing custom feeds to allow users to create more personalized feeds based on their interests.