Meta announced on June 16 that Threads, its text-based social network, has reached 500 million monthly active users. The platform launched on July 5, 2023, as a direct competitor to Elon Musk's X. It gained 100 million sign-ups in five days — the fastest any platform had ever reached that mark. Then engagement cratered, and most observers assumed the experiment was over.
They were wrong.
Threads crossed 275 million monthly active users in mid-2024, hit 400 million by late 2025, and has now cleared the half-billion mark less than three years after launch. Mark Zuckerberg's stated target is one billion users. He is halfway there. The trajectory is not slowing.
The growth story runs in direct contrast to what is happening at X. After Musk's acquisition, X lost more than 50% of its advertising revenue, generating $2.5 billion in 2024 — a 13.7% year-on-year decline. Threads overtook X in daily mobile active users in September 2025. By January 2026, Similarweb data showed Threads averaging 143 million daily users on mobile, widening the gap further.
Alongside the 500 million milestone, Meta rolled out a series of features that signal where the platform is heading. "Your Algo" gives users direct control over what appears in their feed — a deliberate contrast to the opaque algorithmic feeds that dominate most platforms. Communities, which had been in beta, graduated to full launch with custom icons and expanded discovery tools. Threads posts are also indexed by Google, giving content visibility beyond the platform itself.
The advertising picture is still early. Meta began testing ads on Threads in the US and Japan in early 2025, then expanded globally in January 2026. The rollout has been deliberately slow — Meta has said it will take months for all users to see ads. That measured approach stands in contrast to the aggressive monetization that drove users away from X.
The strategic calculation is straightforward. Meta already controls the infrastructure, the ad marketplace, and the sales relationships with millions of advertisers through Facebook and Instagram. Threads does not need to build a new advertising business from scratch. It needs only to funnel existing demand onto a new surface. That is a structural advantage no standalone competitor can match.
What this means for business owners:
Organic reach is still available — for now. Threads is in the growth phase where the algorithm rewards new content and new accounts more generously than mature platforms do. If you have been considering a text-based social presence but find X's environment unconducive, this is the window.
Google indexing matters. Unlike posts on most social platforms, Threads posts are crawled and indexed by search engines. For small businesses, that means a well-written Threads post can surface in search results alongside your website and blog content — additional visibility at zero cost.
Watch the ad pricing. As Threads scales its advertising inventory, early pricing is likely to be lower than comparable placements on Instagram or Facebook. The same pattern played out on every Meta platform: early advertisers paid less per impression and got more reach before competition drove costs up.
Three years ago, Threads was a curiosity that felt like a reaction to Musk's Twitter acquisition. At 500 million monthly users, it is no longer a reaction. It is a destination.