Meta Threads is now live, and received 10 million sign-ups in just 7 hours. This ranks it in the top 10 fastest growing apps of all time (at launch) alongside ChatGPT and, poetically, Instagram. But is Threads free? Let’s look briefly at how pricing plays a crucial role in a successful app launch, and actually answer your question (I promise.)
Meta Threads – Is Threads free?
Yes, Meta Threads is free.
Not only is it free, but the signup process has been made particularly easy for existing users of Meta products – a contributing factor to the explosive growth of what is shaping up to be a viable Twitter competitor.
A paid social app?
For any successful social media app, the first great hurdle is adoption. Consider this – if none of your friends are on a social app, it has no value to you, and therefore you don’t sign up. Each of your friends is also thinking the same thing. Therefore, initially, it has no value to anyone because nobody is on it (not particularly social, if you ask me.)
The only way to overcome this dilemma is for a social app to capture mainstream attention leading up to a big launch, as Instagram parent company Meta has done today on the 6th July. At that one singular moment, you and all of your friends sign up together and instantly find the new platform engaging enough to stick around.
This is all to say, a social app has no chance of a successful launch with any kind of paywall in the way. As soon as a potential new user sees that invitation to enter their credit card details, they bounce. They might even, sensibly, assume their friends will do the same, so they would have nobody to chat to on the app anyway. A self-fulfilling prophecy, and a death sentence for a social media app.
Could Threads start charging users?
Unlikely. You can safely assume the app itself will remain free forever, for the reasons listed above. A social app inherently needs as many users as possible. What they may do is introduce a paid user tier; A direct parallel to Twitter Blue, offering enhanced (or less restricted) functionality. Would it be wise to copy the way Elon Musk is currently running Twitter? Also unlikely.
So with all that said, will you be signing up?
