During Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings announcement, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Instagram Threads has now amassed over 130 million monthly active users. The text-based social networking app, an offshoot of Instagram, emerged as one of several projects in response to Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022, rebranded as X. Threads competes in this landscape alongside startups like Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, Post, Spill, and others.
Zuckerberg acknowledged Threads’ steady growth and highlighted its current success, surpassing its initial launch peak in user engagement. Despite facing challenges and being described as having “blown up” before Meta was fully prepared, Threads is considered on track to achieve significant success.
In the previous quarter, Zuckerberg expressed optimism about Threads, suggesting it had the potential to reach 1 billion users within a few years. At that time, Threads already boasted over 100 million monthly active users.
Meta reported a collective user base of 3.19 billion daily users across its apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, in the fourth quarter. The monthly active users for Meta’s family of apps reached 3.98 billion. This demonstrates a growth from the previous quarter’s figures of 3.14 billion and 3.96 billion, respectively.
Threads exhibited a notable surge in downloads, tripling in December, making it the sixth most downloaded app globally across the Apple App Store and Google Play. This resurgence followed Meta’s promotional efforts, showcasing Threads’ viral content to Facebook users.
Zuckerberg addressed concerns during Threads’ earlier downturn, emphasizing its revived success. While some critics prematurely labeled the app as fading, Threads has rebounded, with an estimated 160 million total users according to third-party trackers.
In terms of earnings, Meta reported $40.1 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023, surpassing analyst estimates. The company’s net income was $14.02 billion. Additionally, Meta announced its inaugural cash dividend of $0.50 per share, scheduled for payment in March to Meta’s shareholders.
