Threads: Twitter alternative from Meta allegedly with advertising from January
Threads was actually supposed to remain ad-free until one billion people had an account there. Now it is supposed to start in January after all.
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Meta wants to start displaying advertising in threads as early as January and thus monetize the short messaging service much earlier than announced after its launch. This was reported by the US magazine The Information, citing three people directly involved in the plans. According to the report, a small selection of advertisers will be given the opportunity to place ads in threads after the turn of the year. A team in Instagram's advertising department is responsible for the implementation, as Threads is closely linked to the photo platform. However, Meta does not expect advertising on Threads to become a significant revenue driver in 2025.
Advertising before reaching the billion mark
Meta launched Threads a year and a half ago, initially for the world outside Europe, and before the turn of the year also in the EU. Since its record-breaking launch, the platform has been growing at a rapid pace; according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 275 million people are now active on it every month. That is significantly more than competitors such as Bluesky or Mastodon, but probably nowhere near as many as X (formerly Twitter). According to Elon Musk, this reached 600 million monthly active users in spring. At the same time, the number of accounts on Threads is still a long way from the billion mark that Mark Zuckerberg has set as a target. In fact, there should be no advertising until this target is reached.
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The plans for the introduction of advertising on Threads come at a time when those responsible for the service are facing some difficulties. Just a month ago, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri admitted that there had been some serious problems with the moderation of content. For example, accounts and content that did not violate the terms of use were deleted. The reason for this was a faulty moderation tool. After the US election, the algorithmic timeline caused frustration because posts appeared there that were hours or even days old. They no longer matched Donald Trump's surprisingly clear victory. Since then, there have been many posts on threads promoting accounts on Bluesky, which is also growing rapidly.
(mho)
