I appreciate the Fediverse integration of threads. I follow a couple threads accounts through Mastodon and it works well (at least for passive reading, I don't know the current state of how replies/boosts/favorites federate back to threads).
Threads is actually gaining in Asia, apart from Japan where Twitter or X managed to capture their audience very early on. The rest of Asia Twitter never gave a damn. And that is where Threads comes in.
The Instagram app surfaces Threads posts and automatically redirects you to the Threads app if you click. Threads web visitors is very low compared to rivals, it's mostly this Instagram clickbait tactic driving the numbers for the mobile app.
I've looked into it, it's mostly from Asia and South America. It's not surprising, Facebook is big there so they probably use their reach with the big app to push their own twitter clone.
I won't be surprised if thread userbase grow over twitter user base in the next year, but their ad revenues will still lag behind as a North american or EU user is "worth" more (a lot more if from the US) for advertisers.
name tfic% pop pop% B/D
Taiwan 0.1056 23112793 0.0028 37.61x
Japan 0.0822 123103479 0.0150 5.50x
Vietnam 0.0413 101598527 0.0123 3.35x
USA 0.0367 347275807 0.0422 0.87x
Brazil 0.0229 212812405 0.0259 0.89x
Others 0.7112 7423710059 0.9019 0.79x
(total) 0.9999 8231613070 1.0000 1.00x
Looks like, Taiwan took it, maybe Japan too.
I'm guessing that the moral of the story is, social media cannot be multilingual/multinational. Either one culture dominates, or the system don't work.
edit: edited to add column C, D, E from [2]; Column E, B/D, is traffic divided by population count as share of world's, which I think should indicate how much differences in popularity there is.
Added columns C, D, E to the parent comment to address this - the original chart looked as if its popularity is evenly distributed across nations, but after normalizing by population, it's a lot more clear that it hit a jackpot in Taiwan, and nothing is happening anywhere else.
It's a pattern that you'll notice after a while. US uses Messenger, EU uses WhatsApp, Japan uses LINE, and Korea uses KakaoTalk. Twitter is still like 30% American and 20% Japanese, Facebook is 30% Indian and 20% American, etc. Functional differences between those competing services are trivial, so there shouldn't be reasons any of those apps cannot dominate the world completely in each field and be multilingual and massively multi-national, yet that just don't happen somehow.
115 million active users yet I can't recall ever seeing a Threads screenshot. Even on Elon-hostile places like Imgur and Reddit, the overwhelming majority of screenshotted memes are from X.
News TV channels in Taiwan that I usually watch, very often use videos from Threads for local news reporting (stuff sent in by the public). X-originated ones pretty much disappeared for the same use. This doesn't account for millions of users (by a long shot), but definitely a noticeable shift.
X is designed for controversy. Threads is designed for anti-controversy. Meta has deliberately discouraged and downplayed politics on Threads. Screenshots are mostly of controversial stuff.
LOL yea no that's not what my threads looks like. It's 99% politics.
The one difference is that threads basically uses instagrams engagement model and bubble up stuff you 'like' or would 'agree with' rather than very confrontational stuff.
It's still politics. Just your own view of it.
"In June 2025, Threads’ mobile app for iOS and Android saw 115.1 million daily active users, representing 127.8% year-over-year growth; X reached 132 million daily actives, as its year-over-year growth declined by 15.2%."
Threads is for mobile? There's an app? Mobile, why do I care about mobile?
Mobile's for phone calls, right? And a mobile phone has a tiny screen, is short on electrical power, and has the worst substitute for a keyboard back before the first typewriter!!!
Instead, I type this using an excellent 32" screen and a really good keyboard got years ago with a Gateway computer!!!
For example, here is author John Green's threads account viewed through mastodon.social: https://mastodon.social/@[email protected]
I can't remember having seen any engagement on twitter/X in years. And that's with thousands of alleged "followers"
I never intend to go to Threads, but am tricked at least once a week by different confusing links in Instagram to going there.
I read a lot of different news and social sites and can't remember ever seeing a link to threads.
I won't be surprised if thread userbase grow over twitter user base in the next year, but their ad revenues will still lag behind as a North american or EU user is "worth" more (a lot more if from the US) for advertisers.
I'm guessing that the moral of the story is, social media cannot be multilingual/multinational. Either one culture dominates, or the system don't work.
1: https://www.similarweb.com/website/threads.net/#geography
edit: edited to add column C, D, E from [2]; Column E, B/D, is traffic divided by population count as share of world's, which I think should indicate how much differences in popularity there is.
2: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by...
It's a pattern that you'll notice after a while. US uses Messenger, EU uses WhatsApp, Japan uses LINE, and Korea uses KakaoTalk. Twitter is still like 30% American and 20% Japanese, Facebook is 30% Indian and 20% American, etc. Functional differences between those competing services are trivial, so there shouldn't be reasons any of those apps cannot dominate the world completely in each field and be multilingual and massively multi-national, yet that just don't happen somehow.
Just checked and Threads in Android play store is 15th in the top downloaded charts (free apps, all categories, UK location).
X is 123rd in the charts
So guessing Meta is putting their existing userbase under strong pressure to install Threads?
The one difference is that threads basically uses instagrams engagement model and bubble up stuff you 'like' or would 'agree with' rather than very confrontational stuff. It's still politics. Just your own view of it.
See also: "we won’t proactively recommend content about politics on recommendation surfaces across Instagram and Threads" https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/continuing-ou...
Social networks live on network effects. You don't choose a social network, you just go where everyone else is.
Mobile's for phone calls, right? And a mobile phone has a tiny screen, is short on electrical power, and has the worst substitute for a keyboard back before the first typewriter!!!
Instead, I type this using an excellent 32" screen and a really good keyboard got years ago with a Gateway computer!!!
A joke, folks!