Threads might get ads early next year

Meta could bring ads to Threads as soon as next year, according to a report from The Information. As part of its plan, Threads will reportedly allow a small number of advertisers to make and publish ads in January.

That tracks with what my colleague Alex Heath reported about the rollout of ads in July. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has also confirmed that Meta is “definitely” planning to bring ads to Threads. “I get why people have concerns, but at the end of the day we’re a business and Threads needs to make enough money to pay for the people and servers that it takes to run the service and provide it to people for free,” Mosseri said at the time.

In its most recent earnings report, Meta said it earned $39.8 billion in advertising revenue over the previous three months — 97 percent of its overall revenue. During an earnings call, Meta CFO Susan Li said that the company doesn’t expect Threads to become a “meaningful driver” of revenue in 2025.

We don’t know how ads will surface on Threads just yet, but they could appear as “sponsored” posts, which is something reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi recently spotted in development.

When asked about The Information’s report, Meta spokesperson Matthew Tye only shared current information about ads in the app. “Since our priority is to build consumer value first and foremost, there are no ads or monetization features currently on Threads,” Tye said. He declined to comment on Meta’s future plans.