Threads users: Twitter competitor gains 70 million sign-ups including Kim Kardashian, Logan Paul & Joe Wicks

Thousands of celebrities jump ship to Meta’s Threads as Elon Musk’s Twitter continues to see chaotic changes

Meta’s latest social media platform, Threads, is off to a strong start as it gains 70 million users within the first two days of its launch. Thousands of celebrities have made the move over to the app as Twitter continues to struggle.

Threads is a free to download social media app. The app is text-based and according to Meta is designed as a space "where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favourite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world."

The launch has many people referring to the new platform as ‘Twitter’ killer, due to their similarities. Many experts have determined that the ease of signing up for the app, due to the fact it is connected to Instagram and users are already able to sign up with existing handles, has played a factor in its success.

The influx in users has been helped by the massive amount of celebrities and influencers who jumped onto the app within hours of its launch. Many celebrities have built up large followings on Threads already, with Kim Kardashian boasting 2.9 million followers and Mark Zuckerberg 2.1 million. YouTube personality Logan Paul appeared on Threads offering $5,000 to anyone who ‘re-threaded’ his post.

According to SimilarWeb, between March 2022 and March 2023, monthly active users of Twitter fell 15 percent on iOS and 14 percent on Android in the U.S. The drop came in the wake of chaotic decision-making and rapid changes at Twitter in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the app. As of April 2023, the site reportedly has 372 million users.

The Daily Mail reported that the launch was actually brought forward to take advantage of the chaotic decisions being made at Twitter which has alienated many users. The most recent catastrophic call came when Musk announced that non-paying users would be limited to seeing 600 posts per day.

Mark Zuckerberg has been increasingly combative about Twitter in his postings both on Threads and Twitter. Zuckerberg broke his 11-year silence on Twitter to post a popular meme of Spider-Man pointing at each other. He said: ‘We are definitely focusing on kindness and making this a friendly place.’

On Zuckerberg, he said: "It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with one billion plus people on it”. He added: “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully, we will.”

Threads has been accused of being a "copycat app" by a Twitter attorney - Credit: Adobe

So, which celebs have made the jump over to Threads? Here’s a list of some of the celebs on the site.

Celebrities on Threads

Thousands of celebs have joined the platform and gained tonnes of new followers, here are just a few:

• Kim Kardashian
• Sarah Jessica Parker
• Zac Efron
• Jake Paul
• Karlie Kloss
• Gordon Ramsay
• Shakira
• Ellie Goulding
• Lily Collins
• Jack Grealish
• Jamie Lee Curtis
• Raheem Sterling
• Liam Payne
• Lewis Hamilton
• Gracie Abrams
• Sam Smith
• Cara Delevingne
• Richard Branson
• Camila Cabello
• Joe Wicks
• Bear Grylls
• JLo
• Usher

How to sign up to Threads

To use Threads you will need an Instagram account to log in with. Once you have signed up you can choose to follow the same people you do on Instagram, provided they are also Threads users.