Elon Musk’s Takeover of X: A One-Year Review
One Year After Musk's Acquisition Twitter Experiences Decrease in Traffic and Revenue Across the Board
A year after Musk bought Twitter, traffic and revenue are down across the board.
It’s Oct. 27, 2023, exactly one year after Elon Musk took over the social media platform. But things aren’t looking too good for X. The once-proud Twitter, now rebranded as X, is experiencing a downward spiral that would make any rollercoaster enthusiast queasy.
The Declining User Count
Let’s start with the daily active user count, a metric that any platform would proudly showcase as a sign of growth. In November 2022, shortly after the acquisition, Musk boasted about a surge in daily active users, from 254 million to nearly 260 million. Quite impressive, right? Well, not anymore.
In a recent interview, X CEO Linda Yaccarino revealed that the platform’s current daily active users amount to a disappointing 245 million per month. That’s a loss of roughly 3.7 percent. Ouch! It seems Musk’s magic touch hasn’t worked wonders for X’s user base.
A Bleak Picture Painted by Data
But wait, there’s more! Musk’s presentation slides from last November touted other platform metrics like “new user sign-ups” and “active minutes.” According to those slides, Twitter was signing up two million new users per day, with users spending a whopping eight billion active minutes on the platform. Impressive, right? Well, not anymore.
According to a recent blog post by Yaccarino, X’s new daily sign-ups have plummeted to 1.5 million, and active minutes have dropped to 7.8 billion. That’s a loss of 500,000 daily sign-ups and 200 million active minutes. It seems Musk’s X isn’t living up to its own hype.
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But the disappointment doesn’t end there. X is the only major social media platform that has experienced a decline in daily active mobile users over the past year. Usage has dropped by a staggering 16 percent. It’s like watching a sinking ship trying to stay afloat.
Mobile Woes and Website Woes
Even X’s mobile app isn’t performing well. Although Musk’s takeover initially led to an increase in app downloads for three consecutive quarters, the most recent quarter saw a drastic 38 percent decrease. That’s the lowest app download numbers since 2019. It seems the appeal of “X” doesn’t quite match that of “Twitter.”
And it’s not just on mobile. According to web analytics firm SimilarWeb, X’s website traffic has decreased by 14 percent compared to last year. It’s like seeing tumbleweeds rolling through X’s virtual halls.
Ad Revenue Takes a Dive
But perhaps the most concerning decline for X is in advertising revenue. Musk’s content moderation decisions and questionable antics have driven away advertisers since the early days of his leadership. According to a recent report, advertising revenue at X has declined every single month since the takeover. Over a 10-month period ending in August, overall revenue was down a staggering 60 percent. That’s some serious revenue leakage.
Premium Subscriptions: A Silver Lining?
One metric where X did see some growth was in X Premium subscribers. However, the picture isn’t as rosy as it seems. When Musk took over, the subscription service, known as Twitter Blue at the time, was merely an experiment with tens of thousands of paying users. Today, with Musk betting on X Premium to make up for lost ad revenue, independent estimates suggest that there are just around one million subscribers paying $8 per month—a far cry from the billions X needed to recover from the advertiser exodus.
The Future of X and Elon Musk’s Investment
While things may not be looking great for X, the platform still soldiers on. Elon Musk paid a hefty $44 billion for the company, and investors are certainly expecting some return on their investment. However, Musk has openly admitted that X has yet to turn a profit. So, how much longer can X chug along before investors start questioning their choices? Only time will tell.
But hey, it’s not all doom and gloom. Maybe Musk has some tricks up his sleeve to turn the tide. After all, no one can deny his knack for surprising everyone. So, dear reader, buckle up and stay tuned for the next chapter in the wild ride that is Elon Musk’s X.
