• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Search
Close

Search

Recommended Reads

Velocitize Talks: Boyd Roberts of Big Picture Group on Branding, Websites & Open Source

3 Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

Happy Anniversary to WordPress! 20 Years & Going Strong

How to Design a High-Converting FAQ Page (5 Tips)

Velocitize

Your fuel for digital success

A publication by 

Your fuel for digital success

  • Featured
  • Marketing
  • Talks
  • Trends
  • Digital
  • Agency
  • WordPress Hosting
Follow

Hanging By the Threads: Threads vs. X

Eileen SmithSeptember 20, 2023

Share

Imagine a social media world without X (formerly known as Twitter and how everyone will always refer to it). That’s what Mark Zuckerberg would like you to do.

In July, Meta launched its much hyped social app, Threads, an Instagram platform for posting and sharing text (up to 500 characters), images and video (up to five minutes), with a purported emphasis on social networking and an X-type community. You can interact with other users through likes, replies and reposts.

If that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it is. It’s like X without Elon Musk.

Screenshot of Meta's Threads login page.

In the first week alone, 100 milion users signed up for Threads, making it the fastest-growing app ever, beating out even ChatGPT. However, just eight weeks after its release, it quickly plateaued at 128 million users.

Here are just a few reasons why that happened.

  • Issue #1: Threads started out as a mobile app only with no website.
  • Issue #2: The browser version didn’t materialize until one month later.
  • Issue #3: Threads lacks popular hashtags, trending stories, an edit button, DMs and a robust search function.
Threads grew rapidly after launch but then declined and leveled off. (Source: TIME)
Source: “Twitter’s Rival Threads Is Already Unraveling,” TIME

Data from Social Media Today estimates the current number of daily active users on Threads as just 10 million, compared to the 250 million daily actives on X. And the average user session on Threads is only three minutes while the average session time for X is 25 minutes.

Who’s Threading Now?

Gen X makes up the majority of Threads users while the majority of X users are Gen Z. (Source: IZEA)
Source: “First Look: The Impact of Threads,” IZEA

According to influencer marketing group IZEA, Gen X made up the majority of Threads users with 36% signing up. More males registered than females (33.2% versus 21.9%) and 60.9% of social influencers signed up. Unfortunately for Meta, almost half of 18- to 29-year-olds have already deleted their accounts.

The majority of X users, on the other hand, are Gen Z (42%). They’re also male (63% to 37%), which makes X the largest gender gap of every other social platform.

Two Apps Are Better Than One

One big boost for Threads is that it’s tied to your existing Instagram account. It shares the same username and profile picture (although you can swap out the picture and display name) and its streamlined process makes it easy to link the two apps together. Your Threads feed populates quickly with your Instagram followers.

Thirty-eight percent of users report creating a Threads account because they were curious to try a new app, while 32% were interested in a Twitter alternative.

Most people who signed up for Threads cited curiousity as their reason. (Source: IZEA)

David vs. Goliath? Threads vs. X

It’s hard to think of Zuckerberg as the little guy fighting the good fight. Really hard. But it’s not too difficult to view Elon Musk as the giant when it comes to social media.

An article in TechCrunch opines that “most new [social media] platforms have at some point been designated the vestibule by which social connection and digital community will carry on, only to be thwarted by controversies, content moderation issues, dwindling engagement, and more.”

In other words, do we really need another Twitter? Do we even need Twitter?

In the meantime, Meta continues to roll out improvements, including better search, active hashtags and an auto-archive option. Will that be enough to lure some wayward users back. Whether Threads can possibly live up to its anticipated nickname, “The Twitter Killer,” is yet to be seen.

For now, a more apt nickname may be “The Twitter Nuisance.”

Photo by Martin Martz

apps Content Marketing facebook Instagram meta social social media threads Twitter X

Eileen Smith

Eileen Smith is the editor of Velocitize. She has 20 years of experience in the field of digital media and communications as a writer, editor, blogger and social media manager. Eileen earned her Master’s degree in Journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University. She enjoys talking about herself in the third person.

Twitter

Join the conversation

Reader Interactions

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Liked this article? Share it!

Featured Posts

  • Velocitize Talks: James Bavington of StrategiQ on WordPress, ...

    Eileen Smith

    March 29, 2024

  • 3 Best Link in Bio Tools for Instagram

    John Hughes

    March 27, 2024

Recent Posts

  • Velocitize Talks: James Bavington of StrategiQ on WordPress, WooCommerce & WP Engine
  • 7 E-Commerce Metrics to Track
  • 3 Best Link in Bio Tools for Instagram
  • How Real Brands Are Using AI Tools in 2024
  • Can You Use Custom ChatGPTs to Improve Your Website?

Recent Comments

  • John on How to Find Your Highest-Spending Customers (2 Methods)
  • JimmyniP on Registration Now Open for DE{CODE} 2024!
  • Digivider on How to Run a Successful Facebook Ad Campaign (In 3 Easy Steps)
  • Searchie Inc on 5 Best AI Content Generators for WordPress Site
  • Sophia Brown on Why You Should Add a Blog to Your Online Store

Categories

  • Agency
  • Analytics
  • Campaigns
  • Content Marketing
  • Digital
  • E-commerce
  • Events
  • Featured
  • Influencer Marketing
  • Insights
  • Interview
  • Marketing
  • Podcasts
  • Recommended Reads
  • Reports
  • SEO & SEM
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Spotlight
  • Statistics
  • Technology
  • Trends
  • Uncategorized
  • Website

Footer

A WP Engine publication

Categories

  • Featured
  • Marketing
  • Talks
  • Trends
  • Digital
  • Agency
  • WordPress Hosting

Pages

  • About Velocitize
  • Sponsored Content
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Follow

© 2016-2025 WPEngine, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WP ENGINE®, TORQUE®, EVERCACHE®, and the cog logo service marks are owned by WPEngine, Inc.

1WP Engine is a proud member and supporter of the community of WordPress® users. The WordPress® trademarks are the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation, and the Woo® and WooCommerce® trademarks are the intellectual property of WooCommerce, Inc. Uses of the WordPress®, Woo®, and WooCommerce® names in this website are for identification purposes only and do not imply an endorsement by WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc.