The free ride on Threads has ended with Meta announcing on Friday that it will begin testing ads on its micro-blogging app. Some investors have said they believe Threads could generate as much as $5 billion annually, which is how much Twitter made before being purchased by Elon Musk in 2022. — Salvador Rodriguez, Deputy Tech Editor, CNBC

Key Points

• Meta will begin testing ads on its Threads microblogging service with a few companies in the U.S. and Japan, the company said in a blog post on Jan. 24, 2025.
• The experiment marks Meta’s first run at generating revenue from Threads, which launched in 2023 to rival X, the company formerly known as Twitter that Elon Musk purchased in 2022.
• Some investors have said they believe Threads could generate as much revenue as Twitter did prior to Musk’s acquisition. In 2021, Twitter’s annual revenue hit $5 billion.

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