Threads recently broke the record of reaching a million users in the shortest time (1 hour).
While the Meta-owned platform is set to make waves in the social media world, let’s see how other popular platforms made their way to a million users and what was their story.
| Platform | Time Taken to Reach Million Users |
| Threads | 1 Hour |
| ChatGPT | 5 Days |
| 2.5 Months | |
| Spotify | 5 Months |
| 10 Months | |
| 2 Years | |
| Netflix | 3.5 Years |
Threads – 1 Hour
Company: Meta
Threads recorded 10 million active users in just 7 hours after its launch on 5th July. According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the platform reached a million users in 1 hour, setting a new record and leaving ChatGPT behind.
Threads is a competitor of Twitter and is an extension of Instagram.
ChatGPT – 5 Days
Company: OpenAI
Released in November 2022, ChatGPT had garnered 1 million active users within a mere 5 days. That was a new record at that time.
ChatGPT has been developed by OpenAI, which has been developing and researching AI since 2015.
OpenAI had previously launched DALL-E, CLIP, and the original GPT model, but ChatGPT brought AI to the common man due to its extremely easy interface.
Instagram – 2.5 Months
Company: Meta
The image-based platform Instagram, now owned by Zuckerberg’s Meta empire, had reached a million users in 2.5 months.
It was launched in October 2010 and was bought by Facebook in 2012.
Spotify – 5 Months
Company: PTC (Publicly Traded Company)
Spotify is a streaming trailblazer which offers music, videos, and podcast from popular creators around the globe.
It was founded in 2008 and reached a million users in just 5 months of its launch.
Facebook – 10 Months
Company: Meta
Facebook’s growth is one of the most inspiring stories of the modern era. The platform was launched in 2004 and reached a million users in 10 months.
Mark had founded Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard University, which later on become an inspiration for future entrepreneurs.
Twitter – 2 Years
Company: X Corp
As per data from Statista, Twitter took almost 2 years to reach 1 million users after its launch in July 2006.
Although it doesn’t seem that impressive compared to Threads, the trend of modern gadgets and the internet wasn’t that mainstream at the time, so it’s understandable why it took Twitter so long.
Netflix – 3.5 Years
Company: PTC (Publicly Traded Company)
The popular video streaming platform took 3.5 years to reach a million users. Although the platform makes it at the end of the list, it was way ahead of its time, considering it launched in 1999 and slowly made its way up.
All of the above platforms are extremely popular now and are constantly competing to get more users and become “the new favorite” in the public’s eye.
Which platform impressed you the most, and which is your favorite one on the list? Let us know in the comments.
