Ever since the launch of Threads, people have been speculating about when Meta will look to insert ads in the app and generate direct revenue from the millions of people signing up to its Twitter-like platform.

Meta has pushed back against criticism on that front, pointing out initially that Threads ads will arrive only when it hits a billion users. It has already been testing the formats of Threads ads, meanwhile, with the goal in time of adding Threads placement to its ad offerings.
And with Threads now at 275 million active users, perhaps Meta is getting impatient.

A new report from The Information claims Meta is planning to bring ads to Threads early in the new year, according to people who know about Meta's plans.

That wouldn't be surprising, however, Meta has denied this timeline.

Sort of.

Meta sent SMT this statement:

"Since our focus is on building consumer value first and foremost, there are no ads or monetization features currently on Threads."

That doesn't exactly contradict the Information's report, but Meta is still standing behind its position that it's not introducing ads into the Threads experience yet.

That aligns with what Meta's executive team had to say about Threads ads in its latest earnings call, where Meta CFO Susan Li pointed out:

"We don't view Threads at this point as a material contributor to 2025 revenue. We've been very happy with the growth trajectory, and we are very focused on the features that are introduced by the community and the contribution to deepening growth and engagement."

So Meta has informed its shareholders that it is not yet looking to monetize Threads with ads, which would seem to be a pretty compelling counterargument to the suggestion that Threads ads are going to be coming anytime soon-more interested in knowing that would be the obvious audience for such news.

So what should you actually expect on this front?

Judging from the statement Meta gave, I would say there has been an internal debate concerning monetization and at this stage, Meta can't quite put the words out there on how the ads are coming for Threads. Threads is growing at a solid rate, but the more recent growth of Bluesky does raise some concern over app future direction and where it goes from here.

I can't help but question whether ads could be the first thing that comes to mind in this case, but it could also be that Meta is mulling over to speed up its timeline for its development of Threads, so all plans are in the air at the present. That would explain Meta's non-committal response because, essentially, nobody probably knows what its broader strategy is presently.

You think Threads is going to have ads plastered all over the platform in 2025? Skeptical on that, and I think Meta will wait till it hits at least 500 million actives before bringing this up. At its growth rate, that may not be that far away, but I do not think Meta is going to suddenly flip-flop on this, especially after just telling investors that this isn't going to happen.