Meta Platforms is to begin testing ads on its Threads platform, launched as a competitor to Twitter, which it said now has more than 300 million monthly users.

The move comes amidst questions over the future of TikTok in the US and other shifts in the social media landscape.

The tests will begin with a few companies in the US and Japan and a small number of Threads users, said Meta executive Adam Mosseri, who oversees Threads and Instagram.

This is the first time Meta has brought advertising to Threads.

Monetisation

“We’ll closely monitoring this test before scaling it more broadly, with the goal of getting ads on Threads to a place where they are as interesting as organic content,” Mosseri said in a Threads post.

Some Threads users will initially see ads with large images in their feeds, resembling sponsored content on Facebook and Instagram, Mosseri said.

Participating businesses will be able to use a brand-safety tool used in Facebook, Instagram and Reels designed to prevent sponsored content from appearing alongside offensive material.

Meta said its monetisation policies would apply to Threads ensuring “content that violates our Community Standards isn’t eligible for ad adjacency”.

Three out of four users on Threads follow at least one business on their personal feeds, the company said in a statement.

The firm said it would disclose more information about third-party advertising verification tools and support for more languages in the coming months.

Meta chief financial officer Susan Li told analysts in October that the company was “pleased” with Threads’ growth but did not at that time expect it to become a “meaningful driver of 2025 revenue”.

Threads was launched in July 2023 as a Twitter competitor following Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform the previous year, and many users’ discontent with measures brought in by Musk.

Advertising demand

Meta has more recently changed its content policies to be closer to those of Twitter, now known as X, scrapping its fact-checking policies in the US and removing content moderation.

The moves bring the company’s policies more closely into line with the rhetoric of incoming US president Donald Trump, a political ally of Musk.

“The launch of Threads ads just weeks after Meta’s content moderation makeover will raise advertiser eyebrows. But the volatility at TikTok is spurring brands to seek alternatives, and Meta isn’t going to pass up an opportunity to throw Threads into the mix,” said eMarketer principal analyst Jasmine Enberg in a research note.

TikTok continues to offer service in the US following an order by Trump to extend a deadline for it to be banned in the country, but the app has been removed from the Apple and Google mobile app stores as required under a 2024 law.

TikTok parent ByteDance, after unsuccessfully challenging the law that requires TikTok to be sold or banned, is now negotiating with the Trump administration for a resolution that doesn’t involve the platform’s sale, a board member said.