iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
Across the world's largest cities, WRI estimates the longest heatwave each year could last 16.3 days on average under a 1.5°C scenario, but 24.5 days at 3°C
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Twitter rival Threads signs up 100 million users in five days
ChatGPT took two months, TikTok nine months and Instagram two-and-a-half years to reach that mark
Meta Threads app logo and Elon Musk Twitter account are seen in this illustration taken on July 7, 2023. — Reuters
The Threads app launched by Instagram as a rival to Twitter has signed up more than 100 million users in less than five days, data tracking websites said on Monday, smashing the record of AI tool ChatGPT for fastest-growing consumer app.
While ChatGPT took two months to hit the 100 million user mark and video-sharing app TikTok took nine months, Instagram itself took two and a half years to reach that mark after its 2010 launch.
Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries late on Wednesday, though it is not available in Europe because parent company Meta is unsure how to navigate the European Union's data privacy legislation.
Twitter is thought to have around 200 million regular users but it has suffered repeated technical failures since Elon Musk bought the platform last year and sacked thousands of staff.
Musk, who also serves as the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, has also alienated many users by introducing charges for previously free services and allowing banned right-wing accounts back on the platform.
Several rivals have emerged but most are niche platforms without the capacity to grow at the necessary scale 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 using a count of the "badges" received by Instagram users who have downloaded Threads reckoned the mark had passed earlier.
Musk has threatened to sue Meta for stealing trade secrets and intellectual property, claims denied by the company, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp.
Musk is locked in a rivalry with Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, with the two men calling each other out for a cage fight recently.
jxb/lth
More news from World
The move aims at taming record immigration levels that pushed country's population past 41 million earlier this year
Wickremesinghe, Premadasa, and Dissanayake are the main contenders for the post
His visit to Cairo aimed to salvage stalled negotiations mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States to end the conflict
Hundreds of pagers belonging to the armed group exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday, killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others
Over a week ago, India had reported its first case in a man who had arrived from western Africa in Delhi
Government faces challenge of accelerating IMF reforms
Thailand reported three more deaths on Wednesday, taking the toll in the kingdom to 18, with a total of 537 fatalities now confirmed across the region