\n<\/p>\n
During Meta\u2019s second quarter earnings call with investors on Wednesday, Zuckerberg was asked multiple times about Threads and his expectations for its long-term success. He said it\u2019s a \u201cweird anomaly in the tech industry that there hasn\u2019t been an app like this for text-based convos that has reached 1 billion people,\u201d echoing previous comments he has made both on Threads itself<\/a> and during a recent interview with the podcaster Lex Fridman<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Threads reached 100 million signups<\/a> faster than any consumer software product in history, but it\u2019s nowhere near reaching the 1-billion-user club yet. Its engagement is also estimated to have slowed significantly since that initial rush of signups, though Zuckerberg said last week that \u201ctens of millions\u201d of people were still using the app daily.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to Zuckerberg, the main focus for Threads, beyond adding key missing features<\/a>, is improving the app\u2019s retention with current users. \u201cI\u2019m highly confident we\u2019re going to be able to pour enough gasoline on this to help it grow\u201d after that work is done, he said. Meta has yet to promote Threads in Instagram or Facebook or spend on marketing it. (Elon Musk has told his employees that he wants his X super-app idea<\/a> to eventually hit 1 billion users, too, though he has very different ideas for getting there<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve tried a bunch of standalone experiences over time, and in general, we haven\u2019t had a lot of success with standalone apps,\u201d Zuckerberg told investors. \u201cPart of me wonders if this is just a classic venture capital portfolio question, where you try a bunch of things and a bunch of them don\u2019t work, and once in a while, one hits… it could be that this is such an idiocratic case because of all the factors happening around Twitter, or X as it\u2019s called now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meta\u2019s business has rebounded significantly this year, and for the second quarter, it reported better-than-expected earnings that sent its stock price higher. The company\u2019s total revenue was $32 billion, with a net income of $7.78 billion. Its Reality Labs division, meanwhile, reported a net loss of $3.7 billion. Management warned investors to expect those losses to \u201cmeaningfully\u201d increase due to \u201congoing product development efforts\u201d in augmented and virtual reality, like the release of the Quest 3 headset<\/a> later this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re really just focused on taking this opportunity, which is an awesome one that we didn\u2019t expect at this scale\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Even with those staggering losses at Reality Labs, Meta doesn\u2019t feel pressure to monetize Threads in the near term. Its established social networks \u2014 Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp \u2014 have never been bigger. Even Facebook has surpassed 3 billion monthly users and is growing again in the US and Canada, the company announced on Wednesday<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n While Twitter is scrambling to recover the ad revenue it has lost since Musk took over, Zuckerberg said on the earnings call that Threads wouldn\u2019t introduce ads until it reaches \u201chundreds of millions\u201d of users. \u201cI think we\u2019re really just focused on taking this opportunity, which is an awesome one that we didn\u2019t expect at this scale,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a long road ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n