Twitter slayer: Threads' signups exceed 22 million in hours after launch

More than 22 million people signed up for Threads, a Twitter competitor from Meta, soon after it was reported that the app received 10 million signups within a few hours of its launch, according to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook's parent company.

While a number of potential rivals have emerged for Elon Musk-owned Twitter, one of social media's most recognisable companies has not yet been replaced, thanks in large part to Threads.

The app launched at 7:00 pm EDT on Wednesday in 100 countries and is currently free of advertisements.

The company moved up the countdown clock for Threads on Wednesday. It was originally scheduled to launch at 10 am EDT on Thursday.

"10 million signups in seven hours," Zuckerberg wrote on his official Threads account Thursday.

Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, and other well-known figures had accounts already set up, as did The Washington Post and The Economist.

After the platform launched, Zuckerberg spent the first few hours responding to new users.

"One thing that's up is the number of world champion MMA fighters on Threads, especially now that you're here!" he wrote in a reply to American MMA fighter Jon Jones.

"Round one of this thing is getting off to a good start," he said in another.

According to CBS, Zuckerberg also took a shot at Musk; the two men are well-known rivals and have even proposed meeting in a cage to engage in a duel. He gave a nod to Twitter's claims that the social media giant has "more than 200 million daily users."

In his first tweet in more than a decade, Zuckerberg included a meme of Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man, ostensibly alluding to how similar the two platforms are.

"I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it," he wrote back on Threads. “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will."

Threads, a spin-off of Instagram, has faced criticism on social media due to its potential to become a "Twitter killer" due to the expectation that some users of the rival platform will switch to the new app.

Meanwhile, Twitter has seen a spike in hate speech since Musk bought the platform last year for $44 billion. Threads has a built-in audience of over two billion users. 

The company hopes to become the go-to communication channel for celebrities, companies, and politicians. However, the company faces criticism for its handling of personal data, which is essential for targeted ads.

Furthermore, the EU launch of Threads was delayed due to regulatory uncertainty in Brussels, and the company is wary of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets strict rules for the world's "gatekeeper" internet companies.

The Threads hashtag on Twitter has garnered over a million tweets globally, with many users jokingly suggesting users would be returning to Twitter.