Shortly after Meta’s new Twitter clone Threads hits 100 million users, analysts say that the app’s user engagement has precipitously dropped off.
NBC News reports that data from Sensor Tower and Similarweb indicates that the newly released social media platform from Meta has seen a drop off in attention from users. Sensor Tower Data suggests that on Tuesday and Wednesday, daily active users dropped 20% from Saturday while time spent on the platform fell 50% from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Similarweb’s data reportedly paints a picture equally as grim as daily active users dropped 25% from a peak on July 7 to Monday, while time spent on the app dropped over 50% from 20 minutes to 8 minutes.
A Meta spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email: “While it’s early days, we’re excited about the initial success of Threads, which has surpassed our expectations. We launched the app just over a week ago, and our focus now is on ensuring stable performance, delivering new features and continuing to improve the experience in the coming months.”
The platform has been facing a bit of an uphill battle of its own design, as Threads is not yet available in the EU due to regulatory concerns. While some users fell for fake versions of the app, others tried to access it via VPN. Meta is now blocking EU users from accessing Threads with a VPN, Engadget reports. Users said notifications, content, and profiles are not loading properly when a VPN is deployed. Meta told the outlet that the EU is an important market, but that it is taking extra steps to limit users in that region from accessing the platform.
Threads was unveiled as Meta’s Twitter killer and became available for download in the U.S. on July 5, and since then, the platform has garnered well over 100 million users, who are able to access it directly from Instagram. The app has not come without its fair share of issues, however. Meta is really trying to brand Threads as an apolitical “friendly place,” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the rollout might have been too premature, as users who want to delete Threads will need to nuke their entire Instagram account.
Update July 14, 12:20 p.m. EST: This article was updated to include comment from Meta.