Instagram's Threads passes 100M signups in just five days, up from 30M in the first 24 hours and 10M in the first seven hours
TechCrunch Ivan Mehta
Context & Ripple Effects
Threads’ launch had already accelerated from 30 million signups in its first day to 70 million in under two days. Reaching 100 million signups in five days confirms that the early surge was sustained beyond the opening hours.
The later coverage separates acquisition from ongoing use: Threads was reported at just under 100 million monthly users in October and above 130 million MAUs by February. That makes the launch figure meaningful as a distribution milestone, but not a standalone measure of retention.
First-order effects
- Threads gains a large initial account base quickly, giving Instagram an immediate audience to seed conversations and test its product at scale.
- Meta’s near-term challenge shifts from attracting signups to converting those accounts into recurring users, a distinction highlighted by the subsequent monthly-user updates.
Second-order effects
- A rapid launch base raises the value of Instagram’s distribution as a way to bootstrap adjacent products, increasing pressure on competing social services to defend user attention rather than simply match launch-day publicity.
- Engagement and retention become the key operating metrics for Threads: later monthly-user growth above the launch peak provides a more useful signal of whether the signup surge becomes a durable audience.
Third-order effects
- The episode points to a social-platform market in which incumbent networks can use an existing identity and audience base to reduce the cold-start problem for new apps.
- If sustained usage follows large signup bursts, competition may increasingly turn on cross-product distribution and retention systems rather than standalone app launches.
The trend: Threads is one data point in the broader shift toward large platforms using established social graphs and distribution to rapidly bootstrap new consumer services.
Related: Instagram · Threads tops 30M signups in its first day · Threads reaches 70M signups in under two days · Threads nears 100M monthly users · Threads surpasses 130M monthly users
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Discussion
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@mattturck
Matt Turck
on x
I know Meta has huge engineering resources and expertise, but kinda wild that a new product could go from zero to 100M users in days and the whole infra scales beautifully without a glitch or even slowness
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@pkedrosky
Paul Kedrosky
on x
I think the thing I like best about Threads is how, via its algorithmic elevation of Instagrammers I would never follow, I'm developing a stronger than expected antipathy toward Instagram's culture of toxic positivity.
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@jyarow
Jay Yarow
on x
100 million “sign ups”. Wonder what usage looks like. [image]
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@phillyd
Philip DeFranco
on x
I mean sure...Threads passed 100 million users in just 5 days which is insane, BUT DID THEY GET ENDORSED BY THE TALIBAN?! I. THINK. NOT. 💪😤 https://twitter.com/... [image]
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@donaldjtrumpjr
Donald Trump Jr
on x
“Meta did not respond to Fox's inquiry about whether it plans to vet platforms it shares user data with or ensure they do not have servers in countries like China.” 🤔 https://www.foxbusiness.com/ ...
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@maxwelltani
Max Tani
on x
possible worst case scenario: threads becomes popular but not quite enough to make twitter irrelevant so you have to spend more time checking both to keep up
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@davemcclure
Dave McClure
on x
retention over long-term prob way more important than initial short-time spike in users, but still... pretty impressive early adoption. also of note: recent drop in Twitter usage (see #s reported by Cloudflare). will be interesting to monitor usage on both platforms next 3 mo's h…
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@aparanjape
Amit Paranjape
on x
That's impressive... but the real challenge will be in actual usage. “Instagram's Threads app reaches 100 million users within just five days” https://techcrunch.com/...
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@mikeisaac
@mikeisaac
on x
threads at 100 million signups in five days mostly organic demand and haven't turned on many promotions yet is the interesting part — they haven't even stuck threads in the FB or IG newsfeeds yet. the signaling = more growth yet to come https://www.threads.net/... [image]
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@seyitaylor
@seyitaylor
on x
more than 1/5th of Twitter now. https://twitter.com/...
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@sarthakgh
Sar Haribhakti
on x
Over 95 million posts and 190 million likes on Threads so far 5% of Instagram user base is on Threads [image]
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@tamisawyer
Tami Sawyer
on x
It really should just count as instagram. This wasn't organic growth. https://twitter.com/...
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@tomwarren
Tom Warren
on x
Threads has passed 100 million users. Many will point out that's quicker than ChatGPT, but it has been bootstrapped to Instagram so the growth isn't quite the same. Still impressive to see this many people download and install a Twitter competitor https://www.theverge.com/...
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@zuck
Mark Zuckerberg
on threads
Threads reached 100 million sign ups over the weekend. That's mostly organic demand and we haven't even turned on many promotions yet. Can't believe it's only been 5 days!
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@mattnavarra
Matt Navarra
on threads
Zuck says the 100 million threads signups was achieved via organic demand. Going to be interesting to see how much higher that number goes when they start pushing it harder inside Instagram and Facebook etc.
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@hubermanlab
Andrew Huberman, Ph.D.
on threads
Congratulations! Loving the functionality and overall tone of @threadsapp Bravo Team!
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@earthlyeducation
@earthlyeducation
on threads
It's simple, you created a platform that doesn't push alt-right nonsense, hate speech and disinformation on important issues such as climate change - please continue this direction because the people...
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@levie
Aaron Levie
on threads
General rule of thumb: if your startup's app doesn't have 100 million users within its first week you should probably bail on the idea.
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@tnlnyc
Tristan Louis
on threads
While we all rejoice about the arrival of Threads, let's not forget that 4 major social network apps (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and now Threads) are in the hands of one company. That is quite a...
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Instagram Threads hits 100 million users, becoming easily the fastest growing app ever