Meta's Threads bolsters retention after losing over half of users: Report

Meta Platforms executives are placing a strong emphasis on increasing user retention for Threads, their recently launched Twitter rival. CEO Mark Zuckerberg informed employees on Thursday that the app experienced a significant drop in users, losing more than half of its user base in the weeks following its highly publicized launch.

According to Reuters, Zuckerberg believes that user retention on the text-based app was higher than what the executives had anticipated, but he acknowledged that it was “not perfect.” He made these remarks during an internal company town hall.

“Obviously, 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,” said Zuckerberg as per Reuters.

Zuckerberg deemed the decrease in users as “normal” and expressed confidence that retention would improve with the introduction of additional features to the app. Plans include developing a desktop version and incorporating search functionality.

As per Reuters, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox stated that Meta aims to implement more “retention-driving hooks” to encourage users to come back to the app. One of the strategies involves ensuring that Instagram users can access important Threads content.

The executives’ statements followed a day after Meta impressed investors with an optimistic revenue growth projection, indicating a potential resurgence for the company. This turnaround comes after facing significant doubts last year due to substantial spending on the metaverse while experiencing a decline in ad sales.

During the call with employees, Zuckerberg expressed his belief that the company’s efforts in developing augmented and virtual reality technology for the metaverse were not massively ahead of schedule, but on track, reported Reuters.

He emphasized the importance for Meta to begin investing in this work sooner rather than later, considering the competition from established players like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, who have years of experience in building operating systems for their existing products.

(With inputs from Reuters)