Over the past few days, there has been a lot of talk and speculation about the launch of the Threads application by Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and how it could have a deep impact on the number of users on the popular social networking platform, Twitter.
However, the CEO of Twitter, Linda Yaccarino, took to Twitter herself on Tuesday to share some news. She revealed that just last week, Twitter experienced its highest day of usage since February, signalling a significant increase in user activity on the platform.
Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread… but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves! Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it. ?
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 10, 2023
Linda Yaccarino expressed her enthusiasm about the platform’s performance and shared the exciting news. She playfully mentioned not wanting to keep users “hanging by a thread” and proceeded to announce that Twitter had achieved its highest usage day since February. Linda emphasized that there is only one Twitter, and both she and the users are well aware of its uniqueness and value.
However, she didn’t give specific details about what exactly she meant by “usage.” This could include several things such as the number of people using Twitter, the time they spent on the platform, how much they interacted with content, or other related statistics. Without more information, it’s not clear which specific aspect of user activity Linda was referring to in her tweet.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the owner and former CEO of Twitter, shed some light on the meaning of “usage” in Linda Yaccarino’s tweet by commenting on her post. He mentioned that the metric of “cumulative user-seconds per day of phone screen time” reported by iOS and Android is the most difficult to manipulate or falsely inflate. Elon expressed his belief that Twitter might reach an all-time high record in this metric during the current week.
Cumulative user-seconds per day of phone screentime, as reported by iOS & Android, is hardest to game. I think we may hit an all-time record this week.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 10, 2023
According to Elon Musk’s comment, if Linda Yaccarino was referring to “cumulative user-seconds per day of phone screentime,” it doesn’t necessarily indicate an increase in the popularity of Twitter. The metric focuses on the duration of time users spend on the platform rather than indicating a direct correlation with overall popularity or user base growth.
Similarweb, a web analytics company, has released figures indicating that web traffic to Twitter has gone down by nearly 5% within the first 48 hours after the launch of Threads. Moreover, Similarweb also reported that Twitter’s web traffic is down by 11% when compared to the same period in the previous year.
It is now impossible to deny that the launch of Threads by Meta has had an impact on Twitter. The new social media text-based microblogging app created by Meta has become extremely popular, attracting over 100 million sign-ups in less than a week. This application which bears a strong resemblance to Twitter has already found itself surrounded by numerous controversies.
As Threads gained sudden popularity, Twitter issued a warning to Meta through a letter, expressing their intention to take legal action. The letter stated that former Twitter employees who were terminated joined Meta and contributed to the development of Threads. Since the new app bears a striking resemblance to Twitter, Elon Musk also accused Meta of intellectual property theft.
