Threads contends with user retention and complaints weeks after debut

This month, Pizza Hut referenced a NSFW meme on Threads. It was subsequently deleted by the chain, one of many brands trying to figure out Threads, Meta’s new Twitter competitor that came out on July 5. Brands have flocked to the platform in droves, looking to capture eyeballs on the new platform. However, Threads has experienced a sizable drop in traffic since its debut.

That’s so last week: Threads clocked 100 million users in its first week online. According to analysis firm SimilarWeb, the app saw 49 million daily active users on July 7, just days after it rolled out. However, the app had 23 million daily active users one week later, on July 14, and average user time dropped from 21 minutes per day to just six in the same period.

As Digiday pointed out, according to Google Trends data—which scores search terms on a scale of zero to 100—Threads was “briefly a more popular search item than Twitter” the day after it was released, but has since seen its numbers drop significantly.

Plus, Threads users have complained about the number of spammy comments on the platform, prompting Instagram head Adam Mosseri to write in a post on Threads that Threads will “get tighter on things like rate limits” in response to “spam attacks.”

Meta introduced updates to Threads last week, including a translation button and a tab that lets users see their followers, though the app does not have direct messaging or a sophisticated search function yet.

+1: Retention is not the only issue Threads is grappling with; This week, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for documents related to content moderation on Threads as part of “an earlier subpoena related to the panel’s ongoing investigation of tech platforms’ policies,” CNBC reported. The app also isn’t yet available in the European Union because of potential “regulatory uncertainty” likely concerning data sharing.