Has Threads finally clipped Twitter wings?

Since Meta's text-based platform, Threads, went live last week, user traffic on Elon Musk's Twitter has decreased. Since its debut, Threads has already attracted more than 100 million subscribers.

The US version of Threads launched on Wednesday, and executives from Meta, including Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, are praising it as a more encouraging "public square" for groups "that never really embraced Twitter."

Meanwhile, users appear to be supporting it so far.

"Threads reached 100 million sign-ups over the weekend. That's mostly organic demand and we haven't even turned on many promotions yet. Can't believe it’s only been 5 days!" Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post Monday.

Twitter, as a result, seems to have been negatively affected, as on Sunday, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince posted a screenshot to Twitter indicating that the platform's traffic was "tanking."

The first two full days Threads was generally accessible saw less web traffic to Twitter than the previous week, according to Similarweb, a data company that specialises in web analytics. According to the company, Twitter's website traffic is down 11% from the same days in 2022.

An automated response was provided by Twitter in response to CNBC's request for comment. Other than Zuckerberg's post, Meta did not add any more commentary.

Due to its connection to Instagram on Meta's network, Threads has experienced explosive growth. As more people download the app, users can sign up using their already-existing Instagram handles and keep some of their following, NBC reported.

Threads was able to pass the 100 million user threshold after receiving a record-breaking 100 million sign-ups in a matter of hours, much quicker than OpenAI's generative chatbot ChatGPT, which took two months.

Since the app has not yet been released in Europe, where there is still some regulatory complexity to navigate, according to Mosseri, there is still a tonne of room for growth. 

Threads is expected to establish itself as a serious rival to Twitter, which, in its most recent quarterly earnings report as a publicly traded company last summer, reported having almost 238 million monetizable daily active users, if the Instagram app maintains its user base. 

Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, seems to have expressed some concern about Threads because, in a letter to Meta, his longtime attorney Alex Spiro charged the company with "unlawful misappropriation" of trade secrets.

Over the weekend, Musk and Zuckerberg also traded insults with each other, as Zuckerberg made fun of Musk's tweeting style and Musk referred to him by a derogatory name.