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.
Elon Musk's Platform X has seen a significant slowdown in user
growth since he took over the platform for $44 billion in mid
2022. Now, the platform, which had
previously experienced robust growth, is now kind of
struggling to maintain momentum. According to the data from the
Financial Times, XS annual user growth has plummeted from around
30% in 2022 to less than 2% in 2024.
The platform saw only a 1.6% increase in daily active users
over the past year, reaching approximately 251 million daily
active users. X's app downloads has also
stagnated, averaging around 100,000 daily iOS downloads.
In contrast, Meta's Threads has been experiencing a higher
download rate, with between 250,000 and 300,000 daily iOS
downloads. So in total, Threads has
achieved 51 million iOS downloads this year, more than
double X's 20 million now. On the Android platform, Threads
has also outpaced X, recording 87,000,000 downloads compared to
X's 45,000,000. The significant difference
highlights the increasing competition X faces from new
social media entrants like Threads now.
Despite the challenges though, X still garners considerable web
traffic, with over 2 billion total monthly visits now.
This contrasts with Threads, which only saw 51.5 million
monthly visits last month, according to similar web data.
The disparity may be attributed to Threads focus on app native
design, though it has recently added more web friendly
features. But Threads recently reported
having 175,000,000 monthly active users, translating to
about 38 million daily users, according to Sensor Tower.
This suggests that Threads users are not as engaged as those on
X, which has a more established base to frequent users.
Now X having been around for nearly two decades, 20 years
ish, maintains a larger user base compared to the relatively
new Threads. However, the rapid growth of
Threads, fueled by Meta's promotion through Instagram,
indicates a shifting social media landscape.
And since Musk acquired X, it's undergone several controversial
changes. These include rebranding from
Twitter to X, attempting to shift towards a video centric
platform, and introducing the AI bot Grok.
Such moves have not been universally well received, and
it contributed to a 40% revenue decline shortly after Musk took
over. Now, Musk's tenure has been
marked by a loss of advertisers, too, partly due to his stance as
a free speech absolutist and the removal of many content
moderators. Critics argue that these actions
have made the platform more toxic, though Musk defends them
as necessary to mitigate financial losses.
Now, Meta's Threads, which was launched about a year ago, has
taken a different approach. By deploying existing moderation
teams and avoiding the amplification of news or
political content, the strategy aims to sidestep the negativity
and scrutiny faced by other platforms.
And according to similar web user engagement on X has been
declining, especially during national election campaigns in
the USUK and France. However, X disputes these
findings, asserting that his monthly user numbers have
increased significantly in these regions.
And the financial health of X has been a concern since Musk
took over, with the company struggling to attract new
advertising revenue. Tensions between Musk and ex CEO
Linda Yaccarino have reportedly been rising as of late,
particularly regarding the company's revenue challenges.
Yaccarino, who became CEO in June after a career at NBC
Universal, has faced significant pressure to stabilize XS
financial health. Musk has been pushing her to
raise revenues and cut expenses, adding to the challenges of her
role. Now, internal documents reveal
that X risked losing up to $75 million in revenue due to
advertisers halting or planning to halt ads on the platform.
Musk made some hostile remarks towards some advertisers.
It's not helped in retaining or regaining their business or
getting new businesses to sign up.
Musk has been attempting to woo back advertisers though, meeting
with ad buyers at major events like the Con Lions Festival.
However, these efforts have yet to fully restore confidence
among any advertisers. So in light of the financial
pressures, X has been undergoing a leadership shake up.
Steve Davis, a longtime Musk ally, has been brought in to
review the company's finances and employee performance,
leading to potential job cuts in the future.
Social media consultant Matt Navarro notes that the ongoing
chaos and leadership changes at X are likely impacting employee
morale in the company's perceived stability.
The transition from Twitter to X has already been traumatic for
many employees. Now, Yakarino's appointment was
initially met with optimism, with some hoping her partnership
with Musk would replicate the success of Gwynn Shotwell and
Musk at SpaceX. However, the challenges at X
have proven to be formidable, raising questions about the
platform's future viability and also how long will Yakarino be
there. X user growth has stalled
apparently under Elon Musk. So there's financial and
significant challenges in maintaining the user engagement
and attracting new advertisers. Meanwhile, Threads is rapidly
growing leveraging its integration with Instagram and
the future of X remains uncertain.
But if it turns into an everything platform, the users
that they have now could be pivoting into a user that
purchases something. So the revenue could be growing
and also X could become a bank in the future too.
So keep an eye out on this channel For more information
about that as we get the information.
Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
I really do appreciate your support.
If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow
button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
to patreon.com/stage Zero. And please take care of
yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.