How Meta’s Threads Became as Popular as X
The social platform that Meta once positioned as a rival to Elon Musk’s X now has 500 million monthly users. It increasingly resembles Reddit.
After Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and turned it into X, Meta created a rival social network called Threads. It immediately overtook OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the app that reached 100 million sign-ups the fastest.
Since then, Meta and the rest of Silicon Valley have shifted away from social media to focus on artificial intelligence. Threads lost the spotlight.
Even so, the platform never stopped growing. Last month, Meta said Threads had amassed 500 million monthly users, a milestone that makes it as popular as Mr. Musk’s X.
Threads now increasingly resembles the social message board Reddit, as well as X. Users gravitate to specific communities on the platform, rather than a feed of news, to discuss television episodes, game recaps, celebrity gossip and current events. Among the most popular topics are K-pop, the W.N.B.A., dating, dramedy books and television shows like “Heated Rivalry.”
Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, has nurtured Threads by positioning it as a conversational space where news and politics are discussed but are not the main draws. The company has built features around the ways that people use the text-based app, like dedicated sections for communities, rewarding top posters with badges and letting people customize their own algorithms.
Connor Hayes, the head of Threads, said the platform had grown with a guiding principle: “Follow the intent of users.” It has set a goal of reaching one billion users, he added. If Threads reaches that target, it will be bigger than Snapchat, which has 956 million users, according to financial filings.
