Threads could be the next social media platform to hit the one billion user mark according to Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. The CEO on Wednesday told investors that “I’m highly confident we are going to be able to pour enough gasoline on this to help it grow.”
Threads Could Hit One Billion
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has high hopes for Threads, his direct competitor to “X”, the company that was formerly known as Twitter.
During the second quarter earnings call of Meta with investors on Wednesday, Zuckerberg was asked several times about Threads as well as his expectations for its long-term success. He then stated that it’s a “weird anomaly in the tech industry that there hasn’t been an app like this for text-based convos that has reached 1 billion people,” echoing previous comments that he has made both on Threads itself and during a recent interview with Lex Fridman the podcaster.
Threads reportedly reached 100 million signups faster than any other type of consumer software product in history, but it’s however nowhere near reaching the 1-billion-user club just yet. Its engagement is also estimated to have dialed down significantly ever since that initial rush of signups, although Zuckerberg last week stated that “tens of millions” of people were still making use of the app daily.
The Main Aim of Threads According To Mark Zuckerberg
According to Mark, the main focus for Threads, which is beyond adding key missing features, is reportedly improving the retention with current users of the app. “I’m highly confident we’re going to be able to pour enough gasoline on this to help it grow” after that work is done, he stated. Meta has however yet to promote Threads in Instagram or either on Facebook or even spend on marketing it. (Elon Musk on the other hand has revealed to his employees that he wants his X super-app idea to eventually hit the 1 billion users mark, too, although he has very different and unique ideas for getting there.)
“We’ve tried a bunch of standalone experiences over time, and in general, we haven’t had a lot of success with standalone apps,” Zuckerberg revealed to investors. “Part of me wonders if this is just a classic venture capital portfolio question, where you try a bunch of things and a bunch of them don’t work, and once in a while, one hits… it could be that this is such an idiocratic case because of all the factors happening around Twitter, or X as it’s called now.”
Meta’s Financial Earnings Of 2023
The business of Meta has rebounded significantly this particular year, and for the second quarter, it has reported better-than-expected earnings that sent its stock price way higher. The total revenue of the company was $32 billion, with a reported net income of $7.78 billion.
Its Reality Labs division on the other hand, meanwhile, reported a net loss of $3.7 billion. Management however warned investors to expect those losses to “meaningfully” increase in time due to “ongoing product development efforts” in augmented and virtual reality, just like the release of the Quest 3 headset in the later parts of this year.
Meta Will Not Be Monetizing Threads Anytime Soon
Even with those very staggering figures in regard to losses at Reality Labs, Meta doesn’t really feel pressure to monetize Threads in the near term. Its established social networks on the other hand such as Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp have never been bigger. Even Facebook in question has surpassed 3 billion monthly users and it is growing again in both the US and Canada, the company on Wednesday made the announcement.
When Will Threads Introduce Ads
While Twitter is reportedly scrambling to recover the ad revenue that it has lost since the takeover of Musk, Zuckerberg stated on the earnings call that Threads would not be introducing ads until it reaches “hundreds of millions” of users. “I think we’re really just focused on taking this opportunity, which is an awesome one that we didn’t expect at this scale,” he said. “It’s going to be a long road ahead.”
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