Data indicates Threads had two engagement metrics decline days after rollout

Recent data indicated Meta Platforms’ new text-based app Threads has experienced declines in two metrics used to measure engagement from the levels it posted shortly after rolling out.

The number of worldwide daily active users (DAUs) on Android for Threads fell roughly 43% from July 7, when it had a high of 49.3 million, to Wednesday, when it had 28 million, data provided to FOX Business by Similarweb showed. 

Similarweb said its iOS model is still undergoing validation. 

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CNBC first covered Similarweb data showing a drop in Threads DAUs, reporting that in comparison to July 7, DAUs on Android on Monday had a decrease of over 25%. It also earlier reported market intelligence firm Sensor Tower found a roughly 20% decline in DAUs overall in the timeframe of July 8 to Wednesday.

A report from Sensor Tower provided to FOX Business said Threads had averaged a 8% decrease in DAUs from the prior day each day since July 7 through Monday.

Similarweb data suggested that from July 6 to Wednesday, time spent per day on Threads via Android in the U.S. fell 66% to 7.1 minutes. It was flat from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to the data.

According to Sensor Tower, Threads has posted an 18% decrease in average time spent day-over-day from July 7 to Thursday on average. 

When reached for comment, a Meta Platforms spokesperson pointed FOX Business to a thread posted Friday by Instagram head Adam Mosseri.

“We’re on day eight of Threads, and growth, retention, and engagement are all way ahead of where I expected us to be at this point,” he wrote. “Our focus right now is not engagement, which has been amazing, but getting past the initial peak and trough we see with every new product, and building new features, dialing in performance, and improving ranking.”

Threads had its debut July 5, with the seeming Twitter competitor becoming available a day earlier than many observers had anticipated. Meta Platforms said Threads offered a “new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations” and featured an interconnection with the Instagram app.

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The app hit a total of 100 million sign-ups over the weekend, according to a Monday update from CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Threads that noted that was “mostly organic demand.”

Similarweb Senior Insights Manager David Carr said in a statement to FOX Business that some engagement that Threads has experienced “seems to have been siphoned straight from Twitter,” reporting Twitter web traffic had a 5%-plunge on July 6 and July 7.

“The best stats we have for mobile app users, again for Android, show that daily active users for Twitter staying about the same but the amount of time users were spending on Twitter dropped 3.9%,” his statement continued. “These are admittedly very early indicators, but they do show Threads has the potential to steal significant usage away from Twitter, particularly as the Threads app team starts to fill in missing features like hashtags and topical search.”

Sensor Tower’s report, meanwhile, said Twitter has so far not seen a “material” drag in engagement due to Threads debuting, reporting the Elon Musk-owned app’s average time spent had jumped 3% from July 6 to July 13. 

Twitter executives have tweeted about Twitter usage in recent days. 

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CEO Linda Yaccarino reported Monday it had hit its highest level in months one day last week, adding, “There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.” On the same day, Musk said Twitter was “growing like crazy” with usage “through the roof.” 

“Platform usage up 3.5% week over week,” Musk tweeted late Friday, sharing a table labeled as showing data for total user active seconds and mobile user active seconds.