As he introduced Threads, a Twitter-like service for Instagram users, Meta cofounder, chair, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered a spectacular knockout of Twitter owner Elon Musk this week. In response, Musk made a legal threat.
Maybe this is the cage match they’ve been advertising.
Since Threads’ inception on July 5 and subsequent viral success, there has been no stopping it. Threads has emerged as the most significant danger to the troubled social media platform among recent clones, trending on Twitter and dominating the free app charts on the App Store and Google Play.
On his Threads page, Zuckerberg has been documenting the app’s rapid rise, noting that 2 million people signed up for it in the first two hours, 5 million in the first four, 10 million in the first seven, 30 million the following morning, and 70 million on July 7.
Comparatively, ChatGPT took two months to reach 100 million users, at which point it became the Internet app with the fastest growth rate in history. Threads might soon surpass that if things continue as they are.
With more than two billion monthly active users able to connect onto Threads upon download, Instagram has obviously had a head start. Additionally, with the immediate transfer of followers fueling its growth, it has been able to take off enormously.
Twitter was approximately one-tenth the size of Instagram prior to Musk’s acquisition. And that was before limitations were placed on tweets and legacy verifications were eliminated.
Many of the most popular Twitter accounts today have larger followings on Instagram, including pop icon Taylor Swift with 267 million Instagram followers, nearly triple her 93.3 million Twitter followers, and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo with 595 million Instagram followers, nearly six times greater than his 108.8 million followers on Twitter. The Kardashians have wasted no time, despite neither having joined Threads as of yet. Khloe has amassed 2 million followers on Threads, Khourtney 1.6 million, and Kim is at 3.3 million despite barely posting anything.
After promising to give one of his new followers a Tesla, Mr. Beast has amassed a following of over 3.4 million. The well-known YouTuber is so smitten with the service that he refers to himself as the CEO of Future Threads.
Who To Follow
As to be expected, several tech influencers joined the site early and have been avid users. One such user is YouTuber Marques Brownlee, who has 20 million social media followers. At the Collision tech conference last week in Toronto, I chatted with him and AT&T’s chief technology officer Jeremy Legg on stage. We discussed AI, AR, EVs, 5G, and the future of everything, and no one really thought that this would turn into the current obsession.
The #1 advantage Twitter has over BlueSky, Mastodon, and all of its rivals is always the PEOPLE, wrote Brownlee in a post. That’s why the launch of Meta’s new Twitter rival “Threads” will be so intriguing. Everyone’s Instagram handles have been transferred over, so there are PEOPLE right now. Should be entertaining.
And the conversations—especially without the bots—have been excellent.
Pete Cashmore, the founder of Mashable, reacted when I said that Threads might soon overtake Twitter, saying, “Twitter has 368M users. In a week or so, threads will probably reach that number. However, they will then need to keep all of those users, he added.The well-known YouTuber is so smitten with the service that he refers to himself as the CEO of Future Threads.
Making a crucial point: Twitter clones won’t be there for a while if interaction declines this time, as exhaustion has undoubtedly taken its toll. Many people have expressed their reluctance to produce content for yet another brand-new platform that might fail as spectacularly as many others have in the past.
But there are benefits to joining a social network early, one of which is getting to experience the friendliness of the community when it is still small.
The venture capitalist Carter Reum tweeted a picture of his wife Paris Hilton reading leadership and AI books while perched on the floor of an airport bookstore as this weekend got closer. Steve Jang, the founder of Kindred Ventures, published a peaceful image of a Buddha statue viewing an old TV.
MR TEC BRO, @mrtecbro, CEO Pavictek News
Aaron Levie, @levie, Box cofounder
Adam Mosseri, @mosseri, Head of Instagram
Alex Heath, @alexheath, The Verge editor
Alex Kantrowitz, @alexkantrowitz, Big Technology podcaster, CNBC contributor
Alex Konrad, @alexkonrad, Forbes senior editor
Alexis Ohanian, @alexisohanian, Reddit cofounder, venture capitalist
Amanda Bradford, @amandabradford, The League cofounder
Andrew Huberman, @hubermanlab, Stanford Neuroscience Professor
Andrew Ross Sorkin, @sorkinsays, CNBC anchor, Billions co-creator
Arianna Huffington, @arianahuff, Huffington Post and Thrive Global founder
Baratunde Thurston, @baratunde, futurist comedian
Ben Parr, @benparr, OctaneAI cofounder
Benedict Evans, @benedictevans, tech analyst
Bill Gurley, @bgurley, Benchmark general partner
Bozoma Saint John, @badassboz, “Netflix/Uber/Apple Hall of Fame marketer”
Brian Solis, @briansolis, OG futurist
Carter Reum, @carterreum_official, M13 venture capitalist + @parishilton
Casey Newton, @crumbler, Platformer
Chris Messina, @chris, hashtag inventor
Dave Morin, @davemorin, Offline Ventures cofounder + @britmorin
Dean Takahashi, @deantak, VentureBeat/GamesBeat lead writer
Ezra Klein, @ezraklein, Vox cofounder
Gary Vaynerchuk, @garyvee, early investor in Facebook, Twitter, Venmo
Garry Tan, @garrytan, Y Combinator CEO
George Hotz, @georgehotz, Comma.ai founder, former Twitter intern
Guy Kawasaki, @guykawasaki, Canva evangelist, Remarkable People podcaster
Harry McCracken, @technologizer, Fast Company tech editor
iJustine, @ijustine, OG tech influencer
Jay Yarow, @jyarow, CNBC executive editor
Jeff Bezos, @jeffbezos, Amazon and Blue Origin founder
Jeff Jarvis, @jeffjarvis, This Week in Google podcaster
Jennifer Jolly, @jennjolly, tech reviewer
Jessica Lessin, @jlessin, The Information founder
Jessica Naziri, @jessicanaziri, tech reviewer
Joanna Stern, @joannastern, WSJ tech columnist, CNBC contributor
Jon Steinberg, @jonsteinberg, Cheddar founder
Josh Constine, @joshsc, SignalFire investor, CNN contributor
Joshua Kushner, @joshuakushner, Thrive Capital founder
Kara Swisher, @karaswisher, Code conference cofounder, Succession podcaster
Katie Roof, @kroofnews, Bloomberg tech deals reporter
Kevin Roose, @kevinroose, New York Times tech columnist
Kevin Rose, @kevinrose, True Ventures partner, OG influencer
Kevin Systrom, @kevin, Instagram cofounder
Lauren Goode, @laurengoode, Wired tech reporter
Lauren Sanchez, @laurenwsanchez, Black Ops Aviation founder
Lex Fridman, @lexfridman, Lex Fridman podcaster, MIT research scientist
Mark Cuban, @mcuban, Shark Tank investor, NBA Dallas Mavericks owner
Mark Gurman, @markgurman, Bloomberg Apple reporter
Mark Pincus, @markpinc, Zynga and Reinvent Capital cofounder
Mark Suster, @msuster, Upfront Ventures managing partner
Mark Zuckerberg, @zuck, Meta cofounder
Martine Paris, @martinepics, tech and trending reporter
Marques Brownlee, @MKBHD, YouTuber tech reviewer, Waveform podcaster
Mike Isaac, @mike_isaac, New York Times tech reporter, “Superpumped” author
M.G. Siegler, @mgsiegler, Google Ventures general partner
Mr. Beast, @mrbeast, YouTuber
Nicholas Thompson, @nxthompson, The Atlantic CEO
Nick Bilton, @nickbilton, Vanity Fair correspondent
Nilay Patel, @reckless1280, The Verge editor-in-chief
Patrick Collison, @patrickcollison, Stripe cofounder and CEO
Paul Krugman, @paulkrugman7, New York Times columnist, Nobel economist
Pete Cashmore, @petecashmore, Mashable founder
Reid Hoffman, @reidhoffman, Inflection AI, LinkedIn and OpenAI cofounder
Richard Branson, @richardbranson, Virgin founder
Robert Scoble, @scobleizer, OG tech influencer
Sal Rodriguez, @salrodriguez, WSJ tech reporter
Scott Budman, @scottbudman, NBC Bay Area tech reporter
Steve Jang, @stevejang, Kindred Ventures partner
Taylor Lorenz, @taylorlorenz, Washington Post columnist
Tobi Lutke, @tobi, Shopify cofounder
William Shatner, @williamshatner, Star Trek legend
Yann LeCun, @yannlecun, Meta Chief AI Scientist
If you’re seeking a guide on interesting people to follow, here is a just a small sample of who is on. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments.