The CEO of Cloudflare, a critical internet infrastructure company, took to Elon Musk’s Twitter recently to point out that the platform’s traffic is “tanking.” The supposed drop in Twitter traffic comes at the same time as significant growth for Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter Clone, Threads. Facebook’s new text-based platform has enjoyed a surge in popularity, amassing over 100 million sign-ups within a week of its launch.
CNBC reports that Facebook (now known as Meta) has enjoyed a quick uptake by consumers for its text-based platform, Threads. The Twitter clone has amassed over 100 million sign-ups within a week of its launch. This rapid growth has sent ripples through the industry, with some industry onlookers claiming that its successful launch has caused Twitter’s traffic to drop.
Mark Zuckerberg on Capitol Hill (Getty/Chip Somodevilla)
Matthew Prince, the CEO of web infrastructure giant Cloudflare, took to Musk’s own platform to point out a drop in traffic. Prince tweeted “Twitter traffic tanking.”
Twitter traffic tanking. https://t.co/KSIXqNsu40 pic.twitter.com/mLlbuXVR6r
— Matthew Prince 🌥 (@eastdakota) July 9, 2023
Web analytics company Similarweb also noted a drop in Twitter traffic in a new report on Threads:
In the first two full days that Threads was generally available, Thursday and Friday, web traffic to twitter.com was down 5% compared with the same days of the previous week. As a year-over-year comparison, it was down 11% compared with July 6 and 7, 2022. Twitter traffic has experienced an overall decline even in the absence of Threads and was down 4% year-over-year in June.
In a bad sign for app user loyalty, Twitter user retention has also declined. On Android, the percentage of new users who are continuing to regularly use the Twitter app after 30 days has dropped from 19% in May 2022 to 16% in May 2023. In contrast, the loyalty of new Instagram users has held steady at about 40%.
Launched on July 5, 2023, Threads is associated with Instagram and designed to directly compete with Twitter as a “sanely run” and highly censored alternative.
Mark Zuckerberg stated in a post to the new platform, “Threads reached 100 million sign-ups over the weekend. That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been 5 days!”
The success of Threads can be attributed in part to its integration with Instagram, another social media platform under Facebook’s umbrella. This strategic move allows users to sign up for Threads using their existing Instagram handles, allowing them to retain some of their followers as others join the app. This seamless transition has undoubtedly contributed to the platform’s rapid user growth.
However, the launch of Threads has stirred up controversy. Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has raised concerns about the new platform. Musk’s longtime lawyer, Alex Spiro, wrote a letter to Facebook accusing the company of “unlawful misappropriation” of trade secrets, hinting at a brewing legal battle between the two tech giants.
Musk expanded his war of words with Zuckerberg over the weekend. The billionaire tweeted that “Zuck is a cuck,” and challenged him to a “literal dick measuring contest.”
Read more at CNBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan