Dulles, VA July 8, 2024 –Social media app and X competitor, Threads, is celebrating its one-year anniversary. So how has it fared over the last twelve months? Mobile app analytics data from GWS Magnify reveals the following:
Threads user base: After a bumpy start to life, in which Threads struggled to retain and engage users, the company has amassed a reasonably sized user base. The platform currently boasts around 14.4 million monthly active users in the US – an all-time high and a 30% increase from where it was at the turn of the year. However, to evaluate Threads solely in terms of its user numbers would be misleading given its dependency on advertising and account sign ups from other Meta owned platforms. Engagement on Threads is the real metric of success, and the platform has struggled in that regard.
Threads app engagement: Without a sufficiently engaging and unique proposition, Threads has struggled to truly engage its audience. Despite recent growth, it is struggling to keep its users on the platform for a sustained period. As of June 2024, users spent just 6 minutes on the app each day. Compared to X at 23 minutes, Instagram at 36 minutes or TikTok on which users spend a remarkable 80 minutes per day, Threads has real engagement issues. For a social media platform, where engagement is the aim of the game, this is a big issue. New entrants into the social media market can succeed – just look at the rise of TikTok. For Threads, however, the platform simply isn’t sufficiently setting itself apart.
Threads and X: In the short term, Threads does not pose a significant challenge to X. Though the company has had recent success in terms of a growing user base, it suffers from a lack of engagement. What’s more, 47% of monthly Threads users are also currently on X. Compared to just 17% in the other direction, Threads needs to do more to set itself apart if it’s going to pose a significant challenge or even look to overtake X in the future.
Threads and Instagram: Threads remains highly dependent on Instagram – in fact, it is hard to see how Threads would have amassed its audience without Instagram. From a user perspective, 98% of those active on Threads also used Instagram in the same month, and 87% used it on the same day. Where Threads might be able to differentiate itself from Instagram is in terms of its audience. Threads users skew male (58%) (and X is more heavily male at 69%), whereas Instagram is more female (51%). Threads users are also older than the typical Instagram user. If Meta execs are concerned with setting the platforms apart, understanding these different audiences will be key. And with hundreds of millions of users across Meta owned platforms in the US and beyond, the opportunity for growth is there. A compelling engagement strategy is the way to do it.
Note: App engagement data was generated using Magnify, GWS’s mobile intelligence data platform. Magnify is comprised of key insights collected from consumers (age 18+) participating in our market research programs in the United Kingdom and the United States. These are real-life consumers who use their mobile devices as normal throughout the day so that the analytics data GWS gathers provides the most accurate picture of the U.K. and U.S. mobile connectivity experience. Data is anonymously collected from Android smartphones 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whenever and wherever the consumers use their devices. Data is reported in aggregate for market research purposes only. All information collected is weighted to a U.K. or U.S. user’s demographic representation of their country’s respective adult population. For more information visit https://gwsmagnify.com/
About GWS: For most consumers today, their mobile device is their life’s remote control. As an independent mobile insights consulting firm, GWS measures every aspect of how people live, work, and play via their mobile devices – as well as how mobile network performance affects them.
Combining our market-leading network benchmarking technology and methodology with deep behavioral data, we help businesses and organizations drive innovation and deliver better customer experiences through mobile insights, anywhere in the world. Championing the needs of mobile users by understanding and testing the things that matter to them, we’ve evolved our technology and services in step with the needs of industry and consumers for 28 years.
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