Advertisers eye Meta’s brand safety as Threads reaches 320 million users and introduces ads

The news: Meta’s microblogging app Threads grew 7% MoM in January, adding 20 million users and reaching 320 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 300 million in December and 275 million in November.

The company said it's experiencing more than 1 million daily signups—a timely surge as it starts testing ads on the platform.

Gradual growth from X-patriates: This month’s moderate MAU growth indicates that Threads is maintaining its position in an increasingly crowded social media market, per TechCrunch.

Threads and services like Mastodon (1.5 million MAUs) and Bluesky (30 million MAUs) gained a surge in users who were moving to X alternatives.

After an explosion of user acquisitions in the fall, Bluesky’s user growth declined to 10% month over month in December, down from 189% in November, per Similarweb.

Focus on customization: Threads rolled out a suite of user-feed changes and business tools this month, including more options for customizable feeds.

• Meta is also updating its recommendation systems to prioritize more recent posts and have feeds include more content from accounts that users follow. 
• Threads now offers tools like insights, multiple drafts, and post-scheduling functions for brands to plan content and connect with audiences. 

Personalizing the content in Threads’ user feeds could boost engagement by helping encourage more time spent in-app, especially as ads roll out.

Weaving ads within Threads: “We expect the introduction of ads on Threads will be gradual and don’t anticipate it being a meaningful driver of overall revenue growth in 2025,” CFO Susan Li said on Meta’s Q4 earnings call. 

The brand safety challenge: Meta loosening restrictions on fact-checking and political misinformation has some advertisers worried, with one ad veteran telling Business Insider, “It’s the final nail in the coffin for platform responsibility.” 

Advertisers are keeping an eye on Threads—missteps in ad placement could spark backlash at a time where content-moderated alternatives like Bluesky and Mastodon are also growing in engagement. 

While those platforms are currently free of ads, a spike in interest for sites that use content moderation could result in a sudden change in their business models.

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