Thirty million users have signed up for Meta’s newly launched Threads app on its first day, the company’s chief Mark Zuckerberg says.
He pitched the app as a “friendly” rival to Twitter, which was bought by Elon Musk in October.
Experts say Threads could attract Twitter users unhappy with recent changes to the platform.
But Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino said though Twitter is “often imitated”, its community can “never be duplicated”.
Threads allows users to post up to 500 characters, and has many features similar to Twitter.
Earlier, Mr Zuckerberg said keeping the platform “friendly… will ultimately be the key to its success”.
But Mr Musk responded: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”
When asked on Threads whether the app will be “bigger than Twitter”, Mr Zuckerberg said: “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it.
“Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”
The launch has had a warm response online, with one person telling the BBC they saw Threads as a “much-needed competitor” to Twitter.
BBC
