Meta's X Rivals thread said Friday that it is testing ads with some brands in the U.S. and Japan. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the company will listen to feedback before expanding the experiment to other markets.
“We know we're getting a lot of feedback on how we approach advertising, and we're making sure that we feel like posts in threads that we think are relevant and interesting,” Mosseri said. . “We will be monitoring this test closely before scaling it more broadly, with the goal of making advertising on threads as interesting a place as organic content,'' he said.
Mehta said in a blog post that ads will have a “sponsored” label when they appear in a feed, and early tests will be image ads.
The company added that people have control over advertising topics and can report ads.
“People come to Meta for a personalized experience that helps them discover businesses and content they love. Advertising is a key part of making this possible. It's as easy as finding a brand you didn't have, but now you're following an ad,'' the company said.
Meta launched Threads in 2023 and initially focused more on user growth with over 275 million active users. The company said in December that it had 100 million active users.
Shortly after Threads' launch, Mark Zuckerberg told investors that Threads' initial focus was that Zuckerberg told investors that the initial focus was on user retention. After seeing positive signs of user engagement, Meta hopes to begin capitalizing on the increased scale of threads with new advertising experiments.
Last April, Mosseri said in a threaded post that the company was definitely planning to bring advertising to the platform.
Last August, App Sleuth Alessandro Paluzzi found code related to ad development in the thread, but Meta said there were no immediate plans for ad rollout.
This story is developing…