Threads has just announced significant growth in November, reaching 35 million subscribers. A spokesperson for the platform said that over the past three months, the app has been receiving more than a million registrations every day. To this end, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced 15 million registrations in November in the middle of the month. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told investors that the app has more than 275 million monthly active users.
There is one likely reason for Threads’ popularity. Competing social media app Bluesky is growing rapidly and getting a lot of positive press. However, it’s worth noting that Bluesky has just passed the 20 million user mark, which my advanced math skills suggest is far less than 275 million. Threads hit 20 million users in about a day after launch, although it has the full weight of the meta-network behind it, with Facebook and Instagram showing posts from the app to attract new users. Bluesky is mostly powered by word of mouth and a collective seething hatred of X.
Threads has also started copying some existing features from Bluesky. The platform recently introduced custom feeds and the ability to change the default feed for people you follow. Mosseri admitted that he started “pushing” certain features that were “already in the works.” In other words, it is definitely feeling some heat.
