Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino reports ‘largest usage day’ in months as Threads continues growing

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino reported Twitter usage hit its highest level in months one day last week, the same week competitor Meta Platforms rolled out Threads.

“Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread… but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves!” she wrote Monday afternoon in a tweet. “Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.”

Threads, the text-based social media platform created by Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, had its debut July 5, becoming available earlier than expected. 

In a post announcing the new app, Meta Platforms said Threads offered a “new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.” It has an interconnection with the Instagram app and a feed that has some resemblance to Twitter’s. 

WILL META’S THREADS BECOME A GAME CHANGER FOR INVESTORS?

Elon Musk subsequently tweeted that “cumulative user-seconds per day of phone screentime, as reported by iOS & Android, is hardest to game.” He said he thought the app “may hit an all-time record this week.”

He went on to say usage on the site was “through the roof.”

“All those articles are just trying to pull us down,” he said. That seemed to reference some news outlets recently covering analysis suggesting Twitter had seen a week-over-week drop in web traffic both on the Thursday and Friday after Thread’s unveiling as well as in the past year. 

“Twitter is better than it’s ever been,” he added.

Yaccarino previously jumped the social media platform she helms to seemingly provide some reaction to Threads. On July 6, the former NBCUniversal executive said Twitter was “often imitated – but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”

TWITTER RIVAL THREADS TOPS 100M USERS

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Monday that Threads had hit a total of 100 million sign-ups over the weekend.

Twitter issued a threat of a lawsuit to Meta last week via attorney Alex Spiro, which was first reported by Semafor. The Musk-owned company alleged Meta hired “dozens” of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information,” accusations Zuckerberg’s company has denied.

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As of Tuesday afternoon, the value of Meta shares had risen 3% in the past five days. The company’s stock price has seen an increase of over 138% since 2023 began. 

Bradford Betz contributed to this report.