Tech giant Meta on Thursday, July 6, launched a Twitter competitor called Threads, which could become an application with 1 billion users.

Within the first seven hours after the launch, 10 million users registered on the new virtual platform. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined his plans for the size of the user base of the new application. He stated that his goal is for 1 billion people to use this digital platform. This means that Zuckerberg not only intends to bypass the competitor, which is Twitter but also leaves it far behind in terms of the number of registered accounts. The user base of the social network, which currently belongs to Elon Musk, is 300 million people.

Zuckerberg, in his publication posted on Threads, said that Twitter had a chance to become a platform with 1 billion accounts, but missed this opportunity. Separately, the head of Meta expressed the hope that the competitor’s user base will not increase in the future.

Threads was created by the Instagram Meta team. Users of this digital platform can exchange messages, the length of which is no more than 500 characters, and links. Also, the functionality of the new social network provides for the possibility of posting photos and videos lasting no more than 5 minutes.

In a press release from the tech giant on the launch of a new social media platform, it is indicated that the concept of Threads is to expand the best qualities of Instagram to text and create a creative space for expressing ideas. In this social network, users can communicate with friends and content creators who adhere to the same ideological positions and have similar values in terms of perception of life.

Colton Hayes, Meta’s vice president of products, said during a conversation with reporters that many active members of the Instagram community had sent requests to create a text application. According to him, the content creators said that they want to get an alternative to what they already have, but at the same time, they are not ready to attract subscribers again.

To connect to the new virtual platform, you need a profile on Instagram. At the same time, deleting an account in Threads requires deleting the associated personal page on Instagram. Meta informs that users can deactivate their profiles on the new social network at any time. The tech giant also emphasizes that in order to completely delete an account, it is necessary to fulfill a condition in the form of a similar action with respect to the Instagram page.

Meta provided an explanation for the unusual practice of terminating the existence of an account in a new social network. The tech giant said that Threads’ profile is part of a user’s Instagram account. Users were surprised by this peculiarity. Instagram currently has a community consisting of more than 2 billion people.

Threads is available for download in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The app has been launched in 100 countries. The social network is not available to residents of EU countries due to uncertainty about the operation of the Law on Digital Markets.

Twitter, the main competitor of the new social network, is currently in a difficult position. The company faced the problem of a sharp drop in advertising revenue. Within five weeks after April 1, the virtual platform earned $88 million through the placement of advertising materials. This figure is 59% less than the result for the same period last year.

Twitter employees, while communicating with journalists on the condition of anonymity, say that this social network can scare off advertisers by increasing the number of publications containing hate-inciting statements and pornographic materials. They also identify as a problem the presence in the Twitter space of advertising online gambling and companies that specialize in the sale of marijuana.

As we have reported earlier, Meta Launches Subscription Service on Games for Virtual Reality Headsets.