Meta recently launched their anticipated Twitter competitor Threads, and celebrities and athletes are already signing up. The app which launched on July 6th has already amassed millions of followers in just a few hours and looks to be building towards even greater heights. Among the new adopters of Threads are those from the sporting world. Former Barcelona and Brazil forward Ronaldinho is an early adopter, along with Belgian-British F1 driver Lando Norris and French MMA artist Francis Ngannou.
Also Read: What is Threads? Meta's new social media app
The three seem excited at the potential of the new social media app, with Norris starting a thread saying he is “Waiting for my friends to join me”. Other famous figures to join the app include Tottenham Hotspur forward Richarlison, striker Harry Kane, Manchester United midfielder Fred, Bayern Munich winger Kingsley Coman and former AC Milan defender Cafu.
But sportspersons weren’t the only ones to sense the marketing and commercial potential of this new venture, and football clubs around the world have jumped onto the Threads train to imprint their digital footprint on the app. Clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Newcastle United, LA Galaxy and more have already started their official accounts and will look to reach a new audience through the Meta app. Similarly, franchises from other sports like NBA’s Golden State Warriors, LA Clippers etch have also signed up for Threads.
Following clubs and players, prominent sports journalists, aggregators and papers have also followed suit. Transfer news king Fabrizio Romano has joined the app, along with famous aggregators such as Sportscenter and OneFootball as well as sites like The Athletic and ESPN. The future for sports fans on Threads seems bright.
The app has had a blistering start to life, and more influencers are set to join the fledgling social media platform. Part of the reason behind the explosive start is the app’s integration with Instagram. Users do not need a fresh account to use Threads but are able to log in using their Instagram account and import their username, profile picture and friends list if they choose. This has made the transition easy and allowed many uncertain customers to test the app without any cumbersome registration steps. While the accounts are shared between Instagram and Threads, users can manage their presence on either app however they please.
Also Read: Who are the International cricketers to join Threads so far?
Threads has been launched at a time when Twitter’s future is uncertain. Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently announced a limit on the number of posts visible to users per day, which was not received well by the larger community. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, says that there is potential for a billion-user microblogging platform and that Threads will seek to succeed where Twitter hasn’t been able to.
