Threads see dip in engagement: Here’s what brands, creators think of future

When it launched Meta Thread, it was described as a “Twitter killer” with 100 million people signing up within days of its launch. But just like other Twitter competitors, Thread seems to be losing momentum.

New data app tracking company Sensor Tower reports that the hype has died down and that subjects have seen a 20 percent decrease in active users and a 50 percent reduction in time spent in the app, from 20 minutes to 10 minutes.

Twitter saw a nearly 5 percent drop in traffic after launching threads earlier this month.

Threads aren’t the only alternative for Twitter to gain and lose momentum. Mastodon saw millions of sign-ups right after Elon Musk bought Twitter in a US$44 billion deal. But since late last year, Mastodon has failed to keep users interested.

Bluesky, backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has also generated some interest but hasn’t really caught up.

Twitter has built its reputation on live, breaking news, making it the go-to platform for millions during events — political or entertainment. In contrast, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram and Threads, has said on numerous occasions that Threads has no plan to support news and political content.

Also, Twitter allows users to work anonymously, which is not possible on Threads due to its direct integration with Instagram. A significant portion of Twitter users remain anonymous, and threads have missed this segment of daily active users.

According to data from app intelligence firm data.ai, most downloads came from “subjects” from India (33 percent), followed by Brazil (22 percent) and the United States (16 percent).

But not everyone crosses the strings. Brands and creators maintain a wait-and-watch attitude while creators feel like the app has nothing new to offer and probably won’t work.

SUGAR Cosmetics co-founder and COO Kaushik Mukherjee said that the brand has leveraged threads to “deliver fun and cool content.”

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of major fintech company Paytm, also shared a graph on Twitter showing the declining user base of Meta Thread.

Good Glamm Group co-founder and CEO of Good Media Co, Priyanka Gill, said the company noticed a dip within two weeks of launching the platform, but because their Instagram user base is “already highly engaged,” they use the platform to diversify content and engage with audiences in different formats.

“We run two different experiments and analyze the data every week to see what works and what doesn’t,” she added.

Fashion e-commerce platform Myntra has launched a Rising Stars campaign for D2C brands on yarns.

“This involved banter between… digital-first brands sharing their excitement for being on Myntra Rising Stars on Thread, thus adding another layer of visibility among their digital-savvy audience,” said Arun Devanathan, Senior Director Social Commerce at Myntra.

According to Nikshubha Sharma, Head of Social Media at Mamaearth Honasa Owner, Themes has limited analytics and an ad-free environment.

“Compared to Instagram, user engagement appears to be average given the difference in followers on both platforms. The status quo will not work on the platform yet,” she added.

Gatan Bawa, founder of new oral care brand Perfora, noted that for every four hours their team spends on Instagram, they spend half an hour on Topics.

“Threads are in a nascent stage… while macro forces will determine traction, we don’t know if it will start to pick up because a lot of (social media) is algorithm based,” he added.

Shriddha Singh, co-founder and CEO of Ayurveda, said the app should remain relevant to the brand’s ecosystem, as Clubhouse has lost its magic, but if Mark Zuckerberg launches an app (Meta), it will still be relevant.

Anant Rastogi, Associate Director of Marketing at Zepto, said there is appetite for an alternative platform and there appears to be good winning potential in topics with short conversations and content.

CEO and Founder of VAHDAM India Bala Sarda said the brand is not using the platform for promotion yet. “We’re trying to strike a chord with the millions of people who have joined the threads rather than doing a direct brand promotion,” he said.

The current version of Themes will not work, Open Source Entrepreneur and Content Creator Anchor Warico.

He said: “Threads made…the fundamental mistake of making it easier for people on Instagram to navigate to Threads. At that moment, it stopped being a new app, and instead became an extension of an existing one… The goal wasn’t to create an IG extension – it was to create a competitor to Twitter.”

She “loves threads,” said Bonita Parekh, a content marketing coach, but the platform “will take time to get to the level of Twitter.”

She predicted, “Threads and Twitter have the same concept, but Twitter has been around for a while. Threads may turn into text Instagram, but it will take time to reach the level of Twitter.”

YouTuber Dhruv Rathee said he doesn’t immediately plan to cash in on the platform unless his user base builds up.

“There’s nothing unique about it being offered. I ran into a lot of bugs and the core functionality wasn’t working properly, so that also discouraged me from using it. If there’s a lot of user base being developed in the future, I’ll consider posting on it,” he said.

Addressing profiles and brands that have a larger audience while tapping into humor works to his advantage, said Myron Schneider, social strategist for US logistics company Flock Freight.

“I was able to get responses from big brands like Lyft, Papa John’s, Toys R Us, Kit Kat, and more,” he said.

Amal Babu, founder of Bengaluru-based media and marketing agency BeyondAd, said many business owners were worried about the dramatic drop in thread engagement, from 19 minutes to just 4 minutes.

“However, I think the numbers are likely to rebound and improve in the near future,” he added.

A recent report by digital consulting firm Kepios featured three Meta-owned apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram in the top five most used apps.