Meta boss Zuckerberg admits Threads failed to retain even half of initial users

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged that their new social media platform ‘Threads’ has witnessed a drastic fall in the number of its users within a month of its launch.

Make no mistake, the X rival rocketed to 100 million users within five days of its launch in early July; however, Threads failed to retain even half of them before the end of the month.

"If you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We're not there yet," Zuckerberg was quoted as saying by BBC.

The Meta CEO reportedly made these comments during a call to employees, who referred to the situation as “normal”.

Company focusing on adding more features

Meta is now focusing on adding more features to Threads to increase engagement on the platform, and thus retain as many users as it could.

The company's chief product officer, Chris Cox, told employees that they were adding more “retention-driving hooks” to the app to draw people back to the platform.

Watch: Meta reported double digit growth since the end of 2021

Features like "following" and "for you"' feeds have already been introduced to the app. Furthermore, the translation tool is also being overhauled to offer the increased scope of translation and boost reach.

While talking about another feature, Cox gave an example of "making sure people who are on the Instagram app can see important Threads".

Other plans by Meta

During the call, Zuckerberg also discussed the company's significant investment in a virtual reality world called the Metaverse. 

He mentioned that progress on augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology was on track, although not drastically ahead of schedule. He expects it to reach mainstream adoption in the next decade.

Some concerns have been raised about Meta's allocation of time and money to the Metaverse, as its Reality Labs division, responsible for VR products, has incurred substantial losses. 

Also read: Meta`s Q2 results exceed expectations with 11% revenue growth

Nevertheless, the company as a whole remains financially strong, having reported a profit of $7.79 billion in the last quarter.

Addressing another headline, Zuckerberg commented on the proposed cage fight with Elon Musk. While both have expressed interest in the past, he's uncertain whether it will actually happen. Zuckerberg said he was "not sure if it's going to come together".