Threads user count falls to new lows, highlighting retention challenges

Washington, DC CNN

According to recent industry estimates, Threads, Meta’s Twitter rival is struggling to retain its users a month after the highly publicized launch. The app engagement has reached new lows.

Meta faces a number of challenges as it attempts to capitalize on the opportunities created by Twitter's chaos.

Sensor Tower reports that Threads' daily active users are down 82% since launch, with only eight million users using the app every day. Sensor Tower reported that the daily active user count is at its lowest since the day following the app's launch, when it peaked at approximately 44 million.

Sensor Tower also noted that people are opening and using the app less often, as well as spending less time on it.

The company said that on the day of its launch, Threads users spent 19 minutes scrolling and opened the app 14 times. These figures dropped sharply by the end of the first month.

Abe Yousef is a senior insight analyst at Sensor Tower. He said that as of August 1, the average daily time spent on Threads was just 2.9 seconds and users only spent 2.6 sessions a day using it.

Similarweb's findings showed the same pattern. Threads' users peaked on July 7, just a day after its launch, at around 49 million. They then steadily declined to just under 11 million by the 29th of July, according to David Carr, senior insights manager for Similarweb.

The two weeks following the launch of Threads saw the steepest decline. The new data shows that the decline is continuing.

Sensor Tower reports that Threads' active users are still declining at a rate around 1% per week.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, said that he is 'quite positive' about the app during the company's quarterly earnings call.

He said: 'We've seen unprecedented growth right out of the gates and, more importantly, we're seeing a lot more people returning daily than I expected.' Now, our focus is on improving retention and the basics. Then, we will focus on expanding the community up to the size we believe is possible.

Threads launched with only a handful of features and later promised to add in highly requested tools like a reverse-chronological content feed, a desktop version of the app and direct messages.

Zuckerberg announced on July 10 that over 100 million people have signed up for Threads. This makes it one of fastest-growing applications in history. According to reports, the company is looking into adding "retention-driving" hooks that keep users engaged.