The Threads app, which Instagram released as a competitor to Twitter, has signed up more than 100 million users in less than five days, according to data tracking websites, breaking the record of AI tool ChatGPT for fastest-growing consumer app.
While ChatGPT took two months and TikTok took nine months to gain 100 million users, Instagram took two and a half years after its 2010 launch to reach that milestone.
Threads went live late Wednesday in 100 countries on Apple and Android app stores, but it is not available in Europe because parent company Meta is unsure how to overcome the European Union’s data protection rules.
Twitter is expected to have approximately 200 million regular users, but it has seen numerous technological difficulties since Elon Musk purchased the platform last year and laid off hundreds of employees.
Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has also alienated many users by charging for previously free services and reintroducing banned right-wing accounts on the network.
Several competitors have developed, but the most are niche platforms that lack the volume required to dethrone Twitter.
Threads is finding it easier because it is linked to Instagram, which has more than one billion regular users.
Online data service Quiver Quantitative reported that the app passed 100 million users at 0700 GMT on Monday.
Other websites calculated the mark earlier by counting the “badges” acquired by Instagram users who downloaded Threads.
Musk has vowed to sue Meta for allegedly stealing trade secrets and intellectual property, something the firm, which also controls Facebook and WhatsApp, denies.
Musk is feuding with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the two have just challenged each other to a cage fight.