According to a letter from Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter's new rival Threads saw a significant drop in users after its launch. More than half of Threads' users stopped using the text-based app within weeks of its release.
Mark Zuckerberg said that while the retention rate was better than expected, it was "not perfect." He considered the drop-off normal and expected retention to improve as more features like desktop access and search are added.
If you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We're not there yet.
Executives are now focused on increasing user retention on Threads. Chris Cox, Meta's chief product officer, said they are looking at "retention-driving hooks," such as displaying important Threads on Instagram, to entice users to come back.
The retention challenges come despite Threads' buzzy launch and Meta's blockbuster earnings report on Wednesday, which sent shares up 8% as investors cheered the company's revenue outlook.
Threads received over 150 million downloads (iOS and Google Play combined) within seven days of its launch. It achieved the milestone 5.5 times more quickly than the second-fastest app to do so.
However, Meta's new call to action doesn't come as a surprise. Previously, we reported that numbers from Similarweb and Sensor Tower suggest that the app's user engagement has dropped since its official launch earlier this month.
The analytics firms also suggested that the average amount of time US users spent declined from 20 minutes to around 8 minutes.
On the other hand, Zuckerberg remains confident about Meta's long-term bets like the metaverse. The company's study shows that metaverse will play a significant factor in the US annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035 with a reported contribution of approximately 2.4%.
Zuckerberg and Cox highlighted the positives, such as Llama 2's 150,000 downloads in one week. But Threads' steep user decline shows that Meta still faces challenges in attracting users beyond its core apps of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Source: Reuters
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