Meta's launch with Threads was a successful one based on the number of signups in its first few hours alone. With it already reaching the 100 million mark, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes that it can be the next platform under the parent company with one billion users.
Reaching One Billion
The tech billionaire is optimistic about the future of Meta's Threads as he hopes to reach one billion users for the Instagram-based app. This was revealed during an earnings call where he was asked about his long-term plans for Threads.
Zuckerberg stated that it was a "weird anomaly in the tech industry that there hasn't been an app like this for text-based convos that has reached 1 billion people," as mentioned in The Verge. Twitter, now X, has an overall user base of 450 million.
Threads quickly saw over 100 million users, faster than any social media platform there is but signups have since died down. Active users have also declined, although Zuckerberg claims that it still has tens of millions of daily active users.
Right now, the company is focusing on making the app better for its users, specifically adding key features that will make it a better text-based social network, as well as the app's retention of its users, presumably through its new and upcoming features.
The Meta CEO expressed that he is highly confident that they're going to be able to "pour enough gasoline" on it to help it grow. With the current rate of signups now, Threads has a long way to go before it reaches the billionth user.
Zuckerberg told his investors that they have tried a bunch of standalone experiences over time, and in general and they haven't had a lot of success with those apps. It's likely why Threads is an Instagram-based app where people can follow users they've already connected with before.
He mentioned to investors: "Part of me wonders if this is just a classic venture capital portfolio question, where you try a bunch of things and a bunch of them don't work, and once in a while, one hits," adding that it could such an "idiocratic case because of all the factors happening around Twitter."
Reality Labs is Not So Lucky
Even with the success of Threads and its other platforms, Meta's Reality Labs unit continues to fall short. Based on the company's Q2 report, the company has had a total revenue of $32 billion and a net income of $7.78 billion, but Reality Labs saw a loss of $3.7 billion.
In the first quarter of 2023, the AR division lost almost $4 billion. The losses continue to grow compared to previous years, although the latest $3.7 billion loss was an improvement compared to the $4.3 billion in the company's Q4 back in 2022.
As mentioned in CNBC, Meta has seen a loss of $21.3 billion since the start of 2022. The division continues to lose money. However, Meta expects earnings to "meaningfully" increase due to product developments like its upcoming Quest 3 headset release.
