Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted on Monday that despite the current fuss over Meta’s new and very similar Threads app, Twitter had its largest usage day last week.
Subtly including the name of Meta’s new app, which launched to great fanfare last Wednesday, Yaccarino did her best to sing Twitter’s praises, tweeting: “Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread … but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves! Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.”
Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread… but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves! Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it. 🎤
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 10, 2023
Yaccarino, who started at Twitter last month after leaving her role as head of advertising at NBCUniversal, declined to say on what day Twitter experienced its “largest usage,” and by what measure, though in a reply to her tweet, Twitter owner Elon Musk said something about “cumulative user-seconds per day of phone screentime.”
The CEO’s claim comes as Threads apparently goes from strength to strength following its launch last Wednesday. The new platform, which Twitter has accused of being a “copycat,” saw 10 million sign-ups on the same day, and within five days had 100 million users, according to a tracker site. That’s approaching a third of Twitter’s regular users, though, of course, it’s too early to say if they’ll stick around.
Twitter has experienced a turbulent time since Musk acquired the platform for $44 billion in October 2022, with a slew of rapid changes affecting users and more than half the company’s workforce laid off.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said in a post on Threads that he believes Twitter’s reputation for going too easy on offensive content has hindered the platform.
“The goal is to keep [Threads] friendly as it expands,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success. That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently.”
Yaccarino’s tweet comes as internet services company Cloudflare said on Monday that its own data suggests that Twitter’s traffic has been “tanking” since early 2023, a few months after Musk acquired the company. The new CEO has only just taken the reins, but she’s going to have to act fast to ensure that Twitter stays relevant.
