Elon Musk claimed Twitter could hit an “all-time high” this week, but data released by internet traffic experts suggests otherwise, while Mark Zuckerberg’s new platform is gaining traction.
“The cumulative user seconds per day of phone screen time, as reported by iOS and Android, are the hardest to play. I think we may hit an all-time high this week,” Musk wrote Monday in response to a post by Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino that said the platform had its “busiest day since February” last week.
But those claims don’t seem to pass the sniff test.
Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder of Cloudfare, a web performance and security company, shared a chart showing a downward trend in the popularity of the social media platform, writing: “Traffic on Twitter.”
Similarweb, a digital data company, said: “Traffic to the Twitter website dropped by 5% compared to the same days last week, and 11% compared to the same days last year,” suggesting that this could also be related to the reported rapid rise of Meta’s new Threads platform.
Zuckerberg on Monday said threads reached over 100 million subscriptions last weekend.
“That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t activated many promotions yet,” he added. “I can’t believe it’s only been 5 days!”
Threads users will reportedly soon be able to view sponsored content on the app, as Instagram’s branded content tools will be made available to marketers on the new platform. according to Axios.
The 100 million registrations in less than a week would also mean that Threads is on track to surpass ChatGPT, which registered 100 million monthly active users two months after launch. becoming the fastest growing consumer app in January, according to a UBS report.
Threads, which launched last week, appeared to benefit from Twitter user dissatisfaction with Musk’s chaotic policies, including most recently “time limits” on the number of posts users could see. “Verified” accounts on the platform can read 8,000 posts per day, while unverified users are capped at 800 posts per day, and newly registered unverified accounts can access 400 posts per day.
Those limits come on top of other technical issues the platform has had since the start of the year, including the website crashing at least four times in February and Musk’s decision to remove legacy blue checkmarks for most users and replace them with Twitter Blue. subscription product.
Threads also benefits from Instagram’s large user base, as Threads accounts work through the photo and video sharing app.
Musk appears to be growing increasingly uncomfortable with Threads’ rapid rise. X Corp., Twitter’s parent company, has threatened to sue Meta over Threads, alleging that the tech giant “engaged in the systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” by poaching Twitter users. your employees.
