Twitter has seen a drop in traffic and is currently ranked 37th in DNS rankings. (Pixabay)

Threads App Sees Surge in Usage as Twitter Traffic Declines

Jim HendlerJuly 10, 23 Elon Musk, Twitter

Twitter has been facing a series of challenges recently, including issues with data scraping and system manipulation. Since Elon Musk acquired the platform, there has been skepticism about its management, leading prominent figures like Elton John and Jim Carrey to quit. On July 1, Twitter experienced a significant outage, with thousands of users reporting problems retrieving tweets. Additionally, Musk’s tendency to make sudden changes has negatively impacted subscribers. As a result, Twitter’s popularity has declined, causing a drop in traffic. Shareholders are concerned about this and may hold Musk responsible.

Twitter traffic decline

On Monday, Cloudflare’s CEO posted a chart on Twitter and Threads showing Twitter’s DNS ranking from January to today, and it doesn’t make for good viewing for the Musk-owned platform. The chart depicts a steady decline in traffic over the course of the year, with its lowest point this year coinciding with the launch of Instagram’s new Twitter competitor, Threads, according to a report by The Verge. Although Twitter has now dropped to #37 this month, Threads has exploded in popularity with over 50 million users in 24 hours and 97 million in a week.

This news comes in the middle of a lawsuit threatened by Twitter Metal for “systematic, intentional and illegal misuse of Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property”. According to a report by The Verge, Twitter attorney Alex Spiro claimed that Meta had hired “dozens” of former Twitter employees to build Threads.

Musk vs. Zuckerberg

But it’s not just a battle between companies, as Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have also engaged in a war of words. Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a “cage match” last month, to which his response was “Send me the location,” used by previously decorated UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.

In addition, Musk called Meta’s CEO a “discipline” on Sunday in response to a screenshot of Zuckerberg’s response to a post by American fast-food chain Wendy’s on Threads. Soon after, Zuckerberg also appeared to troll Musk with one-word responses on Threads. Responding to a message on the platform, Meta’s CEO commented “concerning” with a laughing emoji.