This marks the first step in Meta’s efforts to monetise Threads, which launched in July 2023 as a competitor to X (formerly Twitter). Although the platform initially stood apart from Meta’s other services by avoiding ads, the company now seeks to leverage its large user base to generate revenue.

Now that Threads has more than 300 million active users per month, the first advertising measures are starting. Initially in the USA and Japan.

In its year-and-a-half of existence, one of the things that’s set Threads apart from Meta’s other apps is that the service has been entirely free of the advertising that fills up just about every corner of Facebook and Instagram.