According to Meta, Threads now attracts over 130 million monthly users, up 30 million from Q3

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced during the company’s Q4 earnings report that Instagram Threads currently boasts over 130 million monthly active users. Threads is one of the many emerging projects in the aftermath of Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter, which is now known as X.

It competes with numerous startups and open-source projects, including Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, Post, Spill, and others.

Zuckerberg described Threads’ growth as steady, though he admitted the app expanded faster than Meta had anticipated. “Threads has more active users today than at the peak of its initial launch,” stated Zuckerberg, predicting it’s on track to become a huge success.

In the previous quarter, Zuckerberg heaped praise on Threads, estimating the app could amass 1 billion users within a few years. At that time, Threads had over 100 million monthly active users.

Meta disclosed that its suite of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, was accessed by 3.19 billion people daily in Q4, a slight increase from the 3.14 billion recorded at the end of September 2023. Monthly active users were at 3.98 billion, up from 3.96 billion from the preceding quarter.

Recent trends suggest Threads is gaining popularity. Appfigures, an app intelligence provider, discovered that downloads of the Instagram-owned app tripled in December, making it the 6th most downloaded app in the month across the Apple App Store and Google Play. X, grappling with its rebranding, ranked 36th.

Riding on Instagram’s friend graph, Threads experienced a spectacular launch, amassing 100 million registered users within the initial five days of its release in July. However, interest in Threads waned in the fall, only reviving when Meta began promoting the app’s viral posts to Facebook users. This probably contributed to Threads securing a position in the top 10 most downloaded apps worldwide in December.

Zuckerberg’s remarks presumably sought to counter anxieties raised during Threads’ dip in favor, when critics prematurely deemed it a failure. Current evidence contradicts this — a third-party tracker estimates Threads to have approximately 160 million total users.

In terms of Meta’s earnings, the company reported a $40.1 billion revenue for the quarter ending in December 2023, surpassing analysts’ predictions of $39.18 billion and earnings of $5.33 per share, beating estimates of $4.96. Net income stood at $14.02 billion, with the total revenue for 2023 being $134.90 billion.

Meta also declared its maiden cash dividend of $0.50 per share, scheduled to be paid to the company’s shareholders in March.