July 3 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms' ( META ) newest

social media offering Threads has over 175 million monthly

active users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed on Wednesday, ahead

of its first anniversary.

A challenger to X, formerly known as Twitter, Threads hit

app stores on July 5 last year, timed to win users from the de

facto micro-blogging site during its chaotic takeover by

billionaire Elon Musk.

It garnered 100 million users in less than a week,

partly because of an easy way for users of the popular platform

Instagram to set up their Threads profiles, but some early users

subsequently dropped off.

"What a year," said Zuckerberg in a Threads post. In April,

he had put the Threads MAU figure at more than 150 million.

The monthly average user count gives only a limited picture

of the popularity of Threads, which has not revealed key metrics

such as the daily active user count and average time spent per

user.

Although Threads grew the number of users through

international expansion and new features, the platform has

struggled to drive engagement, according to market intelligence

firm Sensor Tower.

Last month, users registered an average of three

sessions and seven minutes a day on the Threads app, down about

79% and 65%, respectively, from July last year, as per Sensor

Tower data.

Threads does not have advertising and, as such, makes little

to no money for Meta. The platform recently came on the

Fediverse, a group of social media sites that support the

ActivityPub protocol and whose users can interact across those

platforms.

"A year after launch, we know what Threads isn't, but we

don't know what it is," said eMarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg,

adding that a lack of direction and original content could

plague its growth.

"Meta must be wondering whether it makes sense to keep

Threads as a standalone app or to direct that engagement back to

Instagram. The good news is that advertiser interest in the

platform is high," she said.