How is Twitter's business after one year of being owned by Elon Musk?

Under Musk, Twitter changed its name to

When buying Twitter in October 2022, billionaire Elon Musk committed to turning this social networking platform into an "all-in-one application", helping Twitter escape its business struggle for many years since its founding in 2006. However, a year has passed, and most of Musk's ambitions remain unfulfilled

According to third parties, a series of metrics, from users to advertising revenue of Twitter (now renamed X ) are going down. They are trying to rebuild the advertising business because revenue plummeted after being owned by Musk. The platform is also facing content moderation challenges as Musk relaxes many regulations.

The number of users decreased

In August, Musk wrote on his personal page that the platform set a record for "user online time" for several months. By September 2023, X announced it had 245 million daily active users, lower than the number of 259.4 million that Musk shared in November 2022.

However, this number is higher than the 237.8 million that X announced in the second quarter of 2022 - the last time they published a financial report before Musk bought it back and withdrew its listing.

Increase/decrease in monthly active users of platforms in the period October 2022 - September 2023. Chart: WSJ, Sensor Tower

However, data from third parties is less optimistic. According to research firm Sensor Tower, the number of people active daily on the X phone app fell 16% in September compared to the same period last year.

Recently, many powerful social platforms have launched competitors to X, but X is still a habit for many people. For example, Meta Platforms' Threads attracted hundreds of millions of users three months after launch, but still has far fewer users than X, according to Sensor Tower.

The person who uses X the most is probably Elon Musk. Since purchasing this platform, Musk has been more diligent in using it, even though he had previously used X regularly. Musk is currently the person with the most followers X. His posts also often cause controversy for users and advertising agencies.

Personnel reduction

Number of employees of X in the period 2014 - 2023. Graph: WSJ

After taking over X, Musk aggressively cut staff to prevent the company from losing even more money. According to financial reports, at the beginning of 2022, the number of Twitter employees was nearly 8,000 people. But by December 2022, Musk said they only had about 2,000 people left and by April 2023, 1,500 people.

Although some people make gloomy predictions, X still exists. However, the employees who stay are increasingly shouldering heavy workloads. Many users have complained about consecutive technical errors recently. However, others praised Musk's handling of the platform.

Loss of advertising customers

The X logo was projected onto Twitter's headquarters in July. Photo: Reuters

After Musk took over X, hundreds of large advertising customers stopped spending money on this platform. They are afraid to advertise because X changed a lot of regulations under Musk.

However, CEO X Linda Yaccarino always makes positive comments about the company's business status. Last month, she said 90% of the top 100 advertisers had returned and that X could be profitable by early next year. Advertising still contributes the majority of X's revenue, although the company is looking to make money from other areas, such as user fees.

Recent figures show that X's advertising segment is still going down, especially in the US market. Statistics from marketing firm Guideline, based on data from major advertising agencies, show that in the period September 2022 - August 2023, spending on advertising on X in the US decreased by 54%. Meanwhile, spending on TikTok increased 72%, Reddit increased 21% and Facebook & Instagram increased 2%.

Many leaders of major advertising agencies said they still do not see the wave returning to X. Although some brands return, they spend less. Last month, Musk admitted that X's advertising revenue in the US had dropped 60% since he took over.

Value declines

According to Musk's calculations, the value of X dropped to about 20 billion USD in March, half the price he bought it for last year. However, Musk remains optimistic. He told employees at the time that X "could be considered a startup" and he saw the platform's value one day being more than $250 billion. Musk also raised the ambition of this platform to expand into digital banking, video and many other fields.

However, many fund managers have significantly reduced the value of their investments in Twitter compared to October 2022. Baron Capital fell 26%. ARK InvestmentManagement dropped 44%. Fidelity Investments fell 61%.

The company's brand value is also forecast to decrease by billions of dollars because it changed its name to X in July.