Meta's new short messaging platform Threads is aiming to take on Twitter. It saw 10 million sign ups within just seven hours of launch today.
"Threads just passed 2 million sign ups in the first two hours," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted earlier. "Just passed 5 million sign ups in the first four hours…," he posted in the update. The latest post marks the crossing of the 7-million mark.
Facebook founder Zuckerberg was off Twitter for more than 11 years, but he returned this morning and posted a meme, around the same time as Threads was launched.
Opinions are sharply divided on whether Threads will outperform Twitter. Some say its links to Instagram, which provides it with a ready user base, will be an advantage, especially at a time when Elon Musk and new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino try to revive the struggling business.
Others, however, feel that Twitter has a news-oriented outlook that Instagram, primarily a visual platform, will find difficult to replace.
Meta just needs one-fourth of its Instagram users to join Threads to rival Twitter's user base.
Responding to a question on whether Threads can become bigger than Twitter, Zuckerberg said, "It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will."