Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
This is a show where we discuss the critical Crossroads, the
Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink.
I'm your host Will Walden X, the social media platform previously
known as Twitter experience a pretty large outage on Thursday
morning. This marked the most severe
disruption since Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform in
October of 2022. Now this incident, which
affected over 90,000 users globally, coincided with a spike
in interest for Meta's Threads app.
Users started reporting issues on X between 12:00 AM and 3:00
AM Eastern on Thursday. The problems were primarily
encountered on the app, affecting approximately 70% of
the reports. A Users worldwide face
difficulties accessing the platform, making this the
largest outage since Musk's takeover.
Concurrently with the X outage, there was a notable rise in
Google searches for Threads in the United States.
Now Threads, another social media app made by Meta, gained
attention as a stable alternative amidst X service
interruption, continue its trend to acquire users from X.
And before this outage, X had been actively rolling out new
features, including job postings and the AI chatbot Grok.
However, these innovations have not stemmed the user migration
to Threads, which has been expanding its user base rapidly,
reaching significant milestone in just a few months.
Now, the platform under Musk's leadership operates with a
significantly reduced workforce and the current staff count
stands at approximately 2000 people, which is a stark
reduction from the 7000 employees before Musk's
acquisition as reported by TechCrunch.
Now, the reason behind the outage remains unclear and X had
recently undergone an update, but is not confirmed whether the
update was related to the service disruption.
The lack of clarity adds to the concerns surrounding the
platform stability. Now, more than 94,000 users have
reported issues at the peak of the outage, according to Down
Detector, and there's probably more people that were affected
and the reports gradually decreased over time.
But the global impact was significant, with net blocks
confirming A substantial international outage.
And during the outage, certain features of X remained
operational. Users could post, although these
posts were not visible after refreshing.
Additionally, a space hosted by a New York Times reporter
attracted over 800 participants discussing the outage in real
time. Now, the official response from
X regarding the outage was limited.
Automated messages from the platform's PR account provided
no substantial information, leaving users and those
dependent on the platform services in the dark.
And the incident is not the first outage under Musk.
There have been several interruptions since late of
2022, with another major outage occurring in July, affecting
about 50,000 users. The recurring outages are A
cause for concern among the user base now.
According to Down Detector, over 47,000 users in the US also
faced access issues. The outage was also noticeable
among users in the UK and Asia, indicating its wide reaching
effects. Now the hashtag Twitter Down
quickly trended following reports of the outage,
highlighting the platform's significant user engagement
despite the service interruptions.
The outage lasted for just over an hour, after which users
regained access to the platform, and the swift recovery was a
relief to many. But it also raised questions
about the platform's operational stability and preparedness for
future incidents. And since Musk's acquisition of
X, formerly known as Twitter, the platform has faced A
noticeable decline in advertising revenue.
The decrease is a significant concern for the social media
giant, which historically relied heavily on ad revenues as its
primary income source. And the recent outage, which
affected just about 100,000 people, 90,000 plus people,
exacerbates these financial woes.
Advertisers typically seek stability in a broad reach in
platforms they invest in. Recurrent outages, such as the
one experienced recently undermine advertiser confidence,
leading to a reluctance to place ads on a platform that may not
be reliably accessible to its audience.
Now. This drop in advertiser interest
in spending could have a lasting edit this out now.
This drop in advertising interest in spending could have
a lasting impact on X's revenue streams, especially in a
competitive social media market where advertisers have numerous
alternatives. Now, beyond immediate financial
implications, repeated technical issues and outages under Musk's
tenure could erode user trust and negatively affect X's brand
image. Users and advertisers alike look
for consistency and reliability in social media platforms, and
frequent disruptions can lead to a decline in user engagement and
loyalty. This aspect is crucial that
social media platforms thrive on active user engagement.
Now a decline in user trust can create ripple effect leading not
only to reduced advertising revenue but also to a potential
drop in user base. This scenario is particularly
challenging for X as it competes with other platforms like Metas
Threads which has capitalized on being a stable alternative.
Now maintaining user trust is essential for X to ensure its
long term viability and market competitiveness.
And looking at the long term financial outlook for X, the
combination of declining ad revenue, potential, loss of user
base and operational challenges presents a complex scenario.
X may need to explore new revenue models to diversify its
income sources. This could involve the
introduction of innovative features, enhanced subscription
services or tapping into new market segments.
Moreover, addressing technical stability issues is paramount to
regain advertiser confidence. The strategic decisions made by
Musk and the X leadership in the coming months will be critical
in determining the platform's financial health, its position
in the social media market. Now The recent outage at X
raises important questions about the platform's technical
robustness in the strategic direction under Musk as users
continue to seek stable alternatives like threads.
The future of X remains closely watched by us on this podcast,
so please stay tuned For more information.
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