Facebook parent Meta Platforms on Wednesday announced the launch of Threads, a stand-alone microblogging app that takes direct aim at Twitter as user unrest in that platform has grown since Elon Musk took the company over in October.

Threads, which began allowing some posts earlier this week from people including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and journalists and celebrities, rolled out to users around the world Wednesday. The app will use some of Instagram’s infrastructure and allow people to use their Instagram login, a step that is likely to help it gain a following quickly, analysts have said.

“This is a space Twitter has been in and led for a while, but our perspective here is that there is an opportunity and people are looking for more choices,” said Connor Hayes, Instagram’s vice president of product.

Meta moved aggressively in recent weeks to launch Threads, accelerating the timing on several occasions as Twitter users began to revolt after Musk late last week imposed limits on how many posts users can see a day. It is launching without advertising following the company’s pattern of seeking a critical mass of engaged users before giving priority to profit and revenue.

While some analysts cautioned that it wasn’t immediately clear how much additional revenue the company stands to gain from the new product, Zuckerberg and other executives in recent weeks enthusiastically embraced the possibility of competing directly with Twitter.

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‍Source: Bloomberg