Meta Platforms announced on Friday that it will begin a trial run of advertisements on its social media platform Threads, partnering with select brands in the United States and Japan. This development comes as the app surpasses 300 million monthly active users.
Starting on Friday, image-based ads will be integrated into the Threads home feed for a limited group of users. Meta outlined this plan in a blog post, noting that ads will be placed among user content.
The company indicated that it will closely monitor the testing process before expanding the initiative. Advertisers will also have the option to extend their current campaigns on other Meta platforms to include Threads.
In addition, Meta is set to trial an inventory filtering feature for Threads ads. This AI-driven tool will allow advertisers to manage the type of organic content adjacent to their advertisements, providing greater control over the advertising context.
Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at eMarketer, commented on the situation, stating that the introduction of ads on Threads follows a recent overhaul of Meta’s content moderation policies. With the current instability at TikTok, brands are actively searching for alternatives, and Meta appears poised to capitalize on this trend with Threads.
Earlier this month, Meta discontinued its U.S. fact-checking program across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—three of the largest social media platforms that collectively serve over 3 billion users worldwide.
Launched in July 2023, Threads was developed as a competitor to X, previously known as Twitter, in an effort to attract users during the tumultuous transition of that platform under billionaire Elon Musk’s leadership.
Despite the recent developments, Meta’s CFO Susan Li mentioned in an earnings call in October that the company does not anticipate Threads to significantly contribute to revenue in 2025.
On Friday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed plans to invest up to $65 billion this year in enhancing the company’s AI infrastructure, aiming to fortify Meta’s competitive stance against rivals like OpenAI and Google in the tech landscape.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
