Meta's Twitter rival Threads just went live and has already exceeded 10 million signups within the first seven hours, according to (a Thread by) CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The app is now available globally (except in Europe), with the rapid signup pace showing Meta's enormous ability to scale up compared to other Twitter rivals like Bluesky which still requires invite codes.

Axar.az reports that to mark the occasion, Zuckerberg tweeted for the first time in over a decade with the classic Spider-Man standoff picture (showing that, unlike Elon Musk, he knows how memes work). "10 million signups in seven hours," he added on Threads

With Threads, Meta is taking on Twitter and alternatives like Mastodon. It's under the purview of Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, who plans to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub. That's the source protocol that powers Mastodon and other decentralized services sometimes collectively referred to as the “Fediverse.”

Threads are strongly tied to Instagram and built on the same platform, giving Meta an effective way to advertise it. Any users who pre-ordered the app on iOS received a push notification when Threads went live, another move that undoubtedly boosted signups.