Threads Has Lost More Than 80% of Its Daily Active Users::Two separate data analysis firms say the Twitter killer from Instagram has unraveled even as Meta has rushed to add highly requested features.

  • emptyother@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Anyone think Fediverse active userbase is going to fall as much too, only slower? That most people will return to their comfy commercial social networks now that the reddit and twitter demonstrations is in the past?

    I’m hoping not. I like it this active. I don’t want to go back to ads and “personalised” feeds and yearly new useless features.

    • Chrüsimüsi@feddit.ch
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think so. If you look at Mastodon it could actually keep most of its users and still seems to be growing.

      Of course I don’t know what the future holds for us.

    • Kaavi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think the no third party apps on Reddit is the best thing ever for fediverse - even if I wanted to return, I can’t :)

      • daisy lazarus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Also, there’s only so much- “he shot himself three times in the back of the head and fell out of a window” and “I also choose this guy’s dead wife” and “if you owe the bank $1000 it’s your problem and if you owe the bank $1m it’s their problem” and “banana for scale” and “take my poor man’s gold” …ad nauseam, ad infinitum.

        I’ve tried going back. I loved Reddit. But it’s a recycling dump at this stage.

              • Illegal_Prime@dmv.social
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                1 year ago

                Yeah I feel like the upvote button is ignored by these people, it may be more affected. Personally I was never particularly bothered by it, but it doesn’t really warrant a comment.

                I like constructive discussion, please feel free to add your own thoughts, but don’t say you agree and leave us hanging.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don’t know, I’m going to miss “banana for scale”. That one never got old (for me).

          If Lemmy communities have such traditions, I’m looking forward to finding out

      • argo_yamato@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yep without third party apps reddit is worthless to me. A lot of my time spent there was on mobile or a tablet using RIF.

        • techgearwhips@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I use reddit for some niche subs that have no active users on Reddit. Infinity works on Android where you can patch it with your own API key. So that’s what I use. I don’t use reddit in my iPhone at all.

      • enu@lemm.eeM
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        1 year ago

        On top of that, some of those apps are coming to Lemmy. Sync just launched and if a big iOS one like Apollo were to follow, then I think a lot of users will come over just to check out the apps. At which point a lot of them will realize they like Lemmy and just stay here.

    • no banana@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I feel like if you go through the effort of learning about and registering in the fediverse you have a higher chance of staying just because of the invested time.

    • notapantsday@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I came here due to the reddit drama and I’m definitely staying. Just like you, I like it here. The hardest part was actually making the switch, creating an account and finding communities to join. Now that that’s out of the way, I really have no reason to go back. Reddit has become a hostile place, admins are actively fighting users and especially mods and I just don’t feel comfortable there anymore.

      It’s like going to a restaurant where the owner is hitting the waiters and some of the guests. Doesn’t matter how good the food is, doesn’t matter if they’re hitting me or not, I’m never going back to that place.

    • GFGJewbacca@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I know I’m definitely not going back to Reddit. Ever since I found and joined Lemmy, I’ve been happier than I was on Reddit.

      • Balder@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Only problem nowadays is downtime in some instances. Also, if too many people join Lemmy, other problems will follow, such as spam accounts, Russian shill bots etc. which would be very hard to deal with for people running the instances.

    • Cubes@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I think Lemmy specifically doesn’t fall victim to the issue of certain news agencies and personalities being exclusive to the platform as much as Mastodon does with Twitter. You can get the same news here as long as someone is there to post it, but that’s where Lemmy is a bit behind at the moment: we haven’t hit that critical mass of users such that smaller communities have enough content to sustain themselves. Maybe the platform isn’t ready for all those people quite yet either; I think the software has a little maturing to do before mass adoption would happen.

    • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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      1 year ago

      Anyone think Fediverse active userbase is going to fall as much too, only slower?

      I don’t think so, people who joined already are here for philosophical reasons that are stronger than FOMO or slight technical discomfort, and the platform is already good enough to keep us entertained.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m currently not interested in going back to Reddit but “quantity has a quality of its own”. Yeah there were bad spots on Reddit, but so many well developed communities, and most niches found enough people for regular activity. I have yet to find anything like r/askHistorians anywhere. r/CastIron was active an interesting , vs practically dead here, etc

    • spez@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I think thread’s number of users was because of how much instagram has made it’s name in the social media market. A lot of the users were there because it was new so the larger userbase was already weak. On the fediverse however, you (at least right now) have to put in a little bit of effort to learn about federation, clients, services etc. It’s there as an alternative to the bigger players rather than a polished packaged shitbox by them.

      As @ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world said, they will be there because of the invested time. I personally like it because it gives me close, tightly knit little communities on the web.

    • hybrid havoc@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      According to numbers shown on https://fedidb.org it basically already has. Monthly Active Users is only about 17% of total users.

      This kind of retention rate is not uncommon in free social services.

      • trambe@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah pretty much.

        Like as much as I dislike reddit, they still have the communities I interact with the most.

        Lemmy is cool but it’s mainly techy and nerdy stuff that I’m not that into.

    • PredictiveTextNames@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think social media is going to be in freefall for the next year or two until a new platform rises above the rest, and I don’t think it will be any of the current ones.

      Lemmy, kbin, and mastodon are kinda crap and basically help up on a ideal that will equally hold them back. None of us want to be here, we just don’t want to be THERE either. The fediverse might take off, but these iterations are just a stopgap between more user friendly and successful platforms.

      Tildes is a little light on content and somewhat elitist, it’s the most reddit-like platform but it’s also a walled garden and doesn’t want to be anything else.

      Twitter is a dumpster fire but everyone is too entrenched to leave it, Threads is shackled to Insta and Facebook so most people don’t want to commit to that ecosystem and give Zuck more of their privacy than they already might have.

      Reddit lost its soul, I think everyone is more wary of it now and just expect it to continue to get worse and farther from what we all used to enjoy it for.

      I think the majority of people who spend a considerable amount of time online are going to bounce around between all platforms instead of primarily using one until a new Core platform pops up to fill the void.

      It’s probably healthy for us to be fragmented for a while though.

  • o_oli@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I would say they didn’t really lose 80%, because they barely had them to start with. If you click a link on Instagram and bam you’re now a Threads user all ‘signed up’ ready to go? I mean yeah the barrier couldn’t be lower there.

    Retaining 20% of those users is in fact impressive. That’s many millions of people.

    • huginn@feddit.it
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      1 year ago

      9 mil according to the post.

      Pales in comparison to twitters DAU from prepurchase 2022. Who knows what their DAU is now.

      • o_oli@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s still the fastest anyone would have ever reached 9m DAU in the history of the internet I would imagine so if they retain and grow from there is a solid launch.

        But it could shrivel and die from here so I suppose it remains to be seen. Ultimately with the barrier of entry so low you can never tell how legit this userbase is, since its not really a natural growth to 9m.

        • huginn@feddit.it
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          1 year ago

          It’s really dishonest to say that’s the fastest anyone reached 9m DAU. Otherwise you could say the same thing about Facebook Messenger.

          It’s not any different than Instagram if you’re automatically a part of it by clicking on a link on Instagram

          • o_oli@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I think it’s only dishonest if those are not retained.

            To say they hit 100m is dishonest but if 9m are sticking around? To me, that counts. Those people are on a whole new platform even if the onboarding was simple.

            • huginn@feddit.it
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              1 year ago

              I think what remains to be seen is exactly that: How long before they’re at 4.5M DAU?

              • o_oli@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Yeah, well I suppose it’ll still be on a downward trend. How long can they go, where does the rollercoaster end haha.

                Honestly I suppose you can never know. Past successes don’t guarantee anything and this could be a total flop that gets shit canned in a few years.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Similarweb, a digital intelligence platform, shared its data with Gizmodo showing Threads daily active users hovered around 49 million just two days after launch.

    David Carr, a senior insights manager at the analysis company, told us the engagement time based on just U.S. user data was slightly more favorable to Threads, but not by much.

    Back during its 15 minutes of fame, Threads was leveraged as the fastest-growing platform in the history of apps, hitting 100 million user signups less than a week after launch.

    Instagram head Amad Mosseri has also mentioned their intent to connect Threads to the decentralized Fediverse, though whether that drives new-found interest in the app is anyone’s guess.

    It was clear from Thread’s launch that users were desperate for a Twitter alternative away from owner Elon Musk’s unending march toward making the platform a pay-to-play hellscape.

    A big problem with the app was that it simply didn’t include features found in its main competitors, and the company spent years playing catch up, but all in vain.


    I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • ChapolinColoradoNZ@lemmy.world
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      From the get go I thought Threads growth wasn’t organic. The low usage stats, imho, only supports that thought. The app isn’t bad and if people were really so desperate, they’d stick to it to help it’s growth.

      • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Threads is an add-on to instagram. It automatically created shadow accounts for everyone on instagram and automatically imported all followers. Under no reasonable definition can that be counted as organic.

        • senoro@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          It didn’t automatically create accounts, you had to go in instagram and choose to sign up to threads. It’s just that it became very trendy very quickly and for a very short amount of time. Partly due to the fact that on signing up you got a badge on your instagram account saying you were the Xth person to sign up to threads.

      • RestAssured@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Eh. I do think threads is better than twitter, but I think the people that like that text based posting are used to Twitter and nobody else cares about that type of platform

        • Haui@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          It feels like saying stalin was better than hitler. I think the world would be infinitely better if some government agency just pulled the plug on them rn. Let the process start over. People would migrate to the fediverse on their own and the instances could probably start being profitable at some point.

  • gelberhut@lemdro.id
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    1 year ago

    In general, noticeable drop after the initial hype is expected and usual. I’m sure, there are a lot of dead accounts on lemmy as well.

    In case of threads the initial jump was super huge (because of several reasons), so is the drop. 20% is still a lot, and people already have an account there, some of them can return later.

  • Skoobie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Years before the Cambridge Analytica fiasco, I left Facebook and vowed to never join any platform Zucks touches. Dude just gave me the creeps. One of the best times I ever listened to my vibes.

  • sugarfree@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They rushed to release it early and take advantage of the high profile fuck ups at Twitter, it didn’t even come out with a following feed. If even a quarter of users return I’ll be surprised.

    • Blizzard@lemmy.zip
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      it didn’t even come out with a following feed

      Wait, what? You don’t have a feed of accounts you follow?

      • LJay71@lemmy.world
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        The following feed is there now but kind of half baked. It only shows as an option when you click the home icon in the bottom left or the Threads icon located top middle. Then you can switch over to it.

    • Khanzarate@lemmy.world
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      Duh, but also the app is literally titled “Threads, an Instagram app”. Using the proper name and not the singular word names Instagram.

      It’s stupid, but it’s Zuckerberg’s stupid. Also there’s a ton of people helping run the business, it’s just an ad business, not a social media one.

    • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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      Sheryl Sandburg was hugely influential at Facebook, the part of the business that prints money is largely her doing (she took the Google model over there and removed every limitation).

    • jackpot@lemmy.ml
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      heres thr thing about us, we are 100% in a golden era of lemmy before corporations, bots, and dumbasses who shouldnt be able to vote come. the quality, kindness, and general common sense of the average lemmy user is bound to hurdle eventually. look at reddit for godsake people are openly pedophilic there. the userbase here generally is filtered by those with the motivation to join a foss network / know-how. moderation, botchecking, etc. doesnt need to be hard cause it isnt yet an issue but it will become one and the experience will decline. i suggest federating by time of user creation lmfao

  • Chemical Wonka@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Any downfall of Meta (former Facebook ) is a victory for FOSS community, internet and mankind as a whole. One of the heads of the Hydra Big Tech.

    • Defaced@lemmy.world
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      You do understand that Meta actually releases a ton of FOSS right? The LLM API that most machine learning algorithms use is based off Meta’s open sourced language model. I don’t like Meta as much as the next guy, but they do SOME good things every once in a while.

  • febra@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I mean, wasn’t it obvious this will happen? Most people that joined Threads did it because an Instagram popup told them to. Most of them weren’t even Twitter users in the first place. So why would Threads even stick to a user base that wasn’t even into microblogging in the first place?

  • danielton@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Forget the privacy concerns. The issue with Threads is that it’s very unfinished. They assumed the rate limiting was going to be the dumbest thing Elon was going to do, and they rushed it out the door long before it was ready.

    It might still succeed, but you only get one chance at a first impression.

    • TheMadnessKing@lemmy.world
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      The problem with Twitter is that it’s slowly turning to a pile of crap. The amount of spam & NSFW gallore has been wrecking havoc on the platform.

      You mention any company that deals with finance and soon your tweet is bombarded with these spams and more. Makes it very difficult to use now.

      • danielton@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I agree. I am friends with a few artists on there, and we used to chat through DMs, but now Elon is rate limiting DMs, so we’ve had to move the chats elsewhere. How the hell is it supposed to be an “everything app” if you can’t even send text chats to your friends on the platform? This guy is utterly incompetent, so of course spez wanted to copy him I guess.

  • Polar@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Forgot it even existed after the first 48 hours once I stopped seeing posts about it.

  • xc2215x@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If Instagram didn’t add the link, Threads likely would not have that many people.