Meta Platforms Inc. disclosed today that its new Threads social networking app now has more than 100 million users.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri, who is also responsible for Threads, announced the symbolic milestone in a post on the app. The development three days after the service reached 70 million signups and five days after its launch. 

“100 million people signed up for Threads in five days,” Mosseri wrote in the Threads post. “I’m not sure I can wrap my mind around that fact. It’s insane; I can’t make sense of it.”

Threads is a Twitter-like service designed by the Meta business unit that operates Instagram. Users can share posts that contain up to 500 characters, images and videos up to five minutes long. Posts from the accounts that a user follows are displayed in a centralized feed within the app interface.

Threads shares its name with an earlier service that Meta launched in 2019 and discontinued about two years later. That service enabled users to access Instagram’s Direct Messaging feature without having to launch the main app. Additionally, it provided a number of related capabilities that were eventually carried out to Instagram.

After launching Threads last Wednesday, Meta shared details about its development roadmap for the service. The company plans to roll out support for a technology called ActivityPub that is described as a decentralized social networking protocol. According to Meta, the feature will allow users of other ActivityPub-compatible social media apps to access content from Threads and vice versa.

The technology will also power a number of related capabilities. Most notably, Meta stated that the ActivityPub integration will make it simple for users to move content from Thread to other social networks.

Mosseri told The Verge last week that the upcoming ActivityPub support is part of a strategy to make Threads appealing for creators. “It’s becoming rarer that a creator is completely attached to one platform because they’re always worried about the risk of being overly beholden to one company,” Mosseri explained.

The executive also indicated that Meta will likely seek to monetize the service if it draws a significantly large user base. However, he didn’t specify how the company would go about the task. Meta generates most of its revenue by enabling brands to distribute targeted ads via its services.

The European Union is currently implementing a piece of legislation called the Digital Market Act, or DMA, that will create new regulatory requirements for tech giants such as Meta. Under the legislation, the company will be required to ask for consumers’ permission before using their personal data to deliver targeted ads.

Meta has so far made Threads available in 100 countries, but not the EU. Mosseri explained that the decision is tied to “complexities with complying with some of the laws coming into effect.” However, he clarified that Meta does plan to eventually launch Threads in the bloc.

Image: Meta