By Natalie Lung | Bloomberg

Meta Platforms’ new social media app Threads has garnered 70 million users in just two days after its launch, a sign of enthusiasm that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said was “way beyond our expectations.”

Threads launched on Wednesday as an alternative to Elon Musk’s Twitter, which had 237.8 million users as of July 2022, but has also been beset by controversy.

YESTERDAY: Threads gets 30 million sign-ups in a day

On Threads, which closely resembles Twitter’s look, people can post text and links and reply to or repost messages from others. The app will let users port over their existing follower lists and account names from Instagram, Meta’s photo and video-sharing app that counts major brands, celebrities and creators among its more than 2 billion users.

Threads is currently ranked No. 1 among free apps on Apple Inc’s App Store in the US.

“70 million sign-ups on Threads as of this morning, ” Zuckerberg said in a post on his Threads account. “That’s way beyond our expectations.”