In Meta’s relentless efforts to promote Threads, Mark Zuckerberg has announced a significant milestone, revealing that the app now boasts “just under” 100 million monthly active users.
He expressed his optimism, suggesting that Threads has a strong chance of reaching the coveted 1 billion user mark within the next couple of years.
Speaking during the company’s third-quarter earnings call, The Metra boss shared his vision, saying, “I thought for a long time, there should be a billion-person public conversations app that is a bit more positive, and I think that if we keep at this for a few more years, then I think we have a good chance of achieving our vision there.”
Threads was launched in July. Initially, the app saw an impressive 100 million sign-ups in its first week. However, engagement waned as users voiced concerns about its limited functionality and inundation of brand posts in their feeds.
Nonetheless, Meta has steadily introduced new features, leading to a recent resurgence in user engagement, especially as Elon Musk implemented unpopular changes in X, such as removing headlines from links.
Threads’ success isn’t the only highlight for Meta. The company reported over $34 billion in revenue for the quarter, representing a 23 per cent increase from the previous year. Additionally, Meta now boasts 3.9 billion users across its platforms each month, marking a new milestone for the social media giant.
During discussions with analysts, Zuckerberg emphasized Meta’s focus on “efficiency,” which resulted in the company shedding over 20,000 jobs in the past year. He underscored that this strategy would persist as the company navigates a “very volatile world.”
Zuckerberg also revealed Meta’s growing emphasis on generative AI in the future. He stated, “We’re going to continue deprioritizing several non-AI projects across the company to shift people towards working on AI instead.”
Notably, these AI investments will not detract from Meta’s commitment to the metaverse. Meta’s division overseeing AR and VR, Reality Labs, has reported significant losses, with revenue at just $210 million and losses amounting to $3.7 billion for the quarter, totalling more than $11 billion since the beginning of 2023.
Meta’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Susan Li explained that these losses are expected to increase in the coming year due to ongoing efforts in product development and ecosystem expansion in augmented reality/virtual reality.
Mark Zuckerberg, who has recently been highlighting advancements in AI within AR and VR, emphasized that this technology has the potential to reshape all of the company’s services, stating, “Generative AI is going to transform meaningfully how people use each of the different apps that we build.”