A Week of Threads: Fights, Karan Johar’s AMA, and Everything You May Have Missed

Threads was announced on July 6. Within just a week, it saw a host of developments.

Touted to be a rival to social media platform, Twitter, the app took the world by storm from the moment it was launched. Created by Meta, ‘Threads, an Instagram app’ is a text-focused conversation app. However, it is key to note that a lot of the app’s features did feel similar to what exists on Twitter.

Here’s everything you may have missed in one week of the latest social media app being launched.

Twitter vs Threads

The bitter battle seems to be intensifying every day.

After the launch of Threads, Musk filed a lawsuit against Meta platforms. He even sent a letter to Zuckerberg through his Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro. In this letter, he accused Meta of engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property."

In a recent post, Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, called Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, a ‘cuck’.

Zuck is a cuck

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2023

In June, Musk had even challenged Zuckerberg to a “cage match" to which the latter had responded, saying “send me the location." Recently, Zuckerberg was spotted training with UFC champions, which renewed interest and speculation about the “cage fight”.

According to reports, ever since Threads was launched, Twitter traffic has taken a hit.

However, Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri has said on record, “The goal isn’t to replace Twitter. The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter.”

Karan Johar Comments On Being Gay

The filmmaker conducted a 10-minute AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Threads, calling it “Ask Karan Anything”. Putting on his sass hat, when asked “You are gay, right?", he cheekily replied, “You’re interested?".

In other replies, he expressed regret over not having had the chance to work with legendary actor Sridevi. In response to being asked what his strength was, he said it was his “thick skin”.

Other Indian celebrities who jumped on the Threads bandwagon soon after its launch were actors Kajol, Taapsee Pannu, Tamannaah Bhatia, Parineeti Chopra, EAM S. Jaishankar, co-founder of Zerodha Nikhil Kamath and designer Masaba Gupta among others.

Threads Record 100mn Users

The app, since its launch, hit 100 million users in a record span of time. Threads achieved this feat in just 5 days of launching.

To compare how short this timespan is, here is how long other giants of similar nature took to reach the same number of users.

AI chatbot, ChatGPT, accomplished the impressive feat of amassing 100 million users within a span of two months, while TikTok, a widely recognized video-sharing platform, achieved the same milestone in nine months. In contrast, it took Instagram a duration of 30 months to reach 100 million users after its launch in 2010. Notably, popular cab-hailing platform Uber required a substantial 70 months to reach this milestone.

India Loves Threads

According to a report by Sensor Tower, India recorded the highest number of downloads in the world. According to an article by The Messenger, there is a report highlighting Sensor Tower data regarding Threads.

It states that on day one of the launch, the most number of downloads came from India. India accounted for approximately 22% of the total downloads, with Brazil and the United States following closely behind at 16% and 14% respectively.

The report also states that 25% of the total downloads were on iOS whereas the remaining 75% were on Android-based devices.

Read: When We Asked AI About LGBTQ Rights, We Were In For A Surprise

Threads Won’t Focus on “Hard News”

Threads app is “not going to do anything to encourage” politics and “hard news” said Instagram boss Adam Mosseri. This is a crucial statement given Meta’s active detachment from news and politics.

The additional scrutiny and negativity that accompany politics and hard news aren’t worth the “incremental engagement or revenue,” Mosseri wrote. “There are more than enough amazing communities — sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment, etc. — to make a vibrant platform without needing to get into politics or hard news.