Meta has formally declared open the gates of advertisement on its Instagram-linked app Threads. After testing advertisements in selected markets, such as the United States and Japan, on Wednesday the company announced that advertisers across the globe can now target Threads’ expanding user base, with more than 320 million monthly active users, from its platform.

Eligible advertisers will automatically have Threads feed ads turned on in new campaigns through Meta’s Advantage+ or Manual Placements. Only Manual Placements will give advertisers an opportunity to turn Threads ads off. However, Meta has clarified that ads will arrive in selected markets and will gradually span across more markets. This milestone indicates Meta’s belief that Threads has matured enough to finally join along with Instagram and Facebook in the monetization pocket.

Threads Influence & Reputation

The Threads app sprinted its way into the world as opposed to the slow, organic grind of building up a social network from scratch. Through tapping into the Instagram friend graph, it was able to give users access to a familiar community right from the start. Mark Zuckerberg recently mentioned that the app is still growing with “more than 1 million signups per day”, and sees a potential way for Threads to reach a billion users in the near future.

According to the company, the scaling-up indicates that the Threads community is now sufficiently mature for monetization and competition for advertising dollars against its leading rival, Elon Musk’s X. Moreover, Meta believes that its platform is friendlier to advertisers, as three out of four Threads users already follow at least one business on the app.

Meta Protects Its Kingdom

While Threads extends its advertising outreach worldwide, Meta is simultaneously fighting for its social empire. The antitrust case being pursued against Meta by the United States Federal Trade Commission could impel the separation of Instagram and WhatsApp, an existential threat to the very synergies that could make Threads fly.

Threads is rapidly adopting features popularized by competitors such as Bluesky and Mastodon, including curated Starter Packs and a custom feed system. It certainly resembles Mastodon in the integration of its app with the ActivityPub protocol, dragging Threads into a more extensive, decentralized open web known as the fediverse. However, even though that integration is not fully introduced yet, Threads could one day become the largest service operating in the fediverse, overshadowing Mastodon’s registered 8+ million users with under 1 million monthly actives.

New Horizon for Meta and a True Challenge for Rivals

The global ad rollout of Threads isn’t just another update to the product, but rather a strategic stake in the ground. Meta is betting that a more streamlined, advertiser-friendly alternative to X, built directly over its vast Instagram user base, is the future of text-based social engagement. The whole meta strategy on Threads is to move fast, go deep, and monetize globally, provided that Musk doesn’t resurrect X in the meantime.