Instagram’s new text-based app, Threads, has achieved a remarkable milestone by surpassing 100 million sign-ups in just five days, surpassing even the rapid growth of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Within the first two hours of its launch, Threads attracted 2 million users, and the numbers continued to climb rapidly, reaching 5 million, 10 million, 30 million, and eventually 70 million. CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his astonishment at the launch’s success, stating it has exceeded their expectations.

Notably, users of Threads are not just signing up but actively engaging on the platform. Within a short time, the app has already seen over 95 million posts and 190 million likes. However, Threads is still in its early stages, and its long-term cultural impact remains to be seen. While Meta, the parent company of Instagram, does not intend to directly replace Twitter, Threads could potentially become a popular conversation-based social media platform.

That said, Threads is still in its infancy, and we’ll have to wait and see if it captures the same cultural cachet that Twitter once did. Meta isn’t specifically targeting trying to replace Twitter, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri, and the company isn’t going to actively encourage politics and hard news on the platform, but it could end up being the place people go for a conversation-based social media platform. And while Meta “couldn’t be more psyched” about how the launch week has gone, “we don’t even know if this thing is retentive yet,” Mosseri said.

Comparing the user numbers, Twitter had around 260 million monetizable daily active users as of last November and approximately 535 million monetizable monthly active users according to recent reports. However, external data indicates a decline in Twitter’s traffic in recent months.

Despite some missing features, such as support for ActivityPub and limited functionalities like a read-only web interface and the absence of features like post search, direct messages, hashtags, and a “Following” feed, Threads’ achievement of reaching 100 million users in a short time is remarkable. The app’s strict policy against nudity distinguishes it from other Twitter alternatives like Bluesky. Overall, Threads appears to have made a strong entrance, and its success suggests a promising future for the platform.