Twitter grew an incredible '1.6%' since Musk's $44B takeover. Amazing. Wow
(2024/07/10)
- Reference: 1720565472
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/09/x_user_base_twitter/
- Source link:
Growth of X's userbase has reportedly flatlined since Elon Musk took over the thing formerly known as Twitter.
The social media zoo grew its daily active userbase by 1.6 percent in the 12 months since the second quarter of last year, according to internal figures obtained by the [1]Financial Times . X now averages 251 million daily active users around the world, up a few million from around 247 million in 2023.
While that increase is better than a decrease, it's nowhere near the growth Twitter used to enjoy up until very recently. We're told the app-site saw its userbase expand by around 15 percent in every single year from 2019 to 2022, with the exception of 2020 which exploded by around 35 percent.
[2]
Unfortunately for X and Elon, [3]who bought Twitter in late 2022 for $44 billion and renamed it early last year, there's a very conspicuous drop-off in growth after the Tesla tycoon's takeover. The second quarter of 2023 registered roughly a five percent increase, a far cry from the double-digits in previous years, according to the FT.
[4]
[5]
Perhaps X's stagnation can't be fully attributed to the site's management under Musk. After all, the pre-acquisition years saw pretty good growth, and there's a point where gaining even more users becomes more challenging. Facebook's growth is also famously [6]slowing after all these years albeit while still commanding an audience of billions.
That all said, telling key advertisers to " [7]go f**k' themselves " can't have helped matters.
[8]X boss Elon Musk tries to make nice with world at ad biz conference
[9]Adios, accountability: X to hide 'likes' for everyone this week
[10]Kremlin social media trolls aren't actually that influential, study finds
[11]Bots don't spread fake news on Twitter, people do, say MIT eggheads
Xitter has implemented substantial changes since Musk came along. He promised to do [12]something about spam bots on the app-site, though we'll let you decide how well that went, and how well it's faring now with automated accounts.
What we can note is that X is far more monetized than Twitter ever was, with the now infamous blue checkmark and [13]some DM functionality being locked behind a paywall. [14]The end of free API access over a year ago led to several third-party Twitter apps being discontinued, something that likely isn't conducive to user growth.
[15]
Musk himself has been controversial to say the least, as the xeeter-in-chief has made a habit of expressing pretty divisive views on X, such as in 2022 when he suggested Russian's war on Ukraine could be ended if Kyiv gave up Crimea, permitted new referendums to be held in the regions the Kremlin has annexed, and dropped its bid to join NATO. As opposed to, say, Russia being the ones to go f**k themselves right off out of it and pay for what it has done.
The SpaceX supremo claims to be a proponent of absolute free speech and has repeatedly said such openness is an important component of X. Though, it's not clear how dedicated to that cause Musk is, as X is [16]suing nonprofit Media Matters for investigating ads being placed next to hate speech on the platform. A similar suit [17]against another nonprofit was dismissed after a court ruled it was "about punishing the defendants for their speech."
X gone? Give it to ya
At least some of X's stalled growth is likely down to Threads, the Twitter competitor Facebook parent Meta released a year ago. According to X's reported internal data, in August nearly 60 percent of Threads users also used X, while just about 10 percent of X users were on the alternative platform.
FBI zaps 968 AI-fueled Russian Twitter bots [18]DON'T MISS
However, since then things have not been trending in X's favor as Threads grows to 175 million users. As of June, just about 40 percent of Threads users were also on X, down 20 percent. Meanwhile, a little under 20 percent of X users are now on Threads, too. Though, it's unclear if these trends will continue, and even if they do, they have apparently been very gradual according to the obtained data.
X also has smaller competitors in the form of the open source Mastodon network, the main gimmick of which is that it's federated, or split up into multiple decentralized but compatible networks. Threads has been working towards getting [19]connected to the fediverse since March, and full integration could turn the screws on X even further.
Bluesky, created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is also gaining traction and has recently [20]opened its doors to the public. The platform has around six million users according to unofficial estimates, and that's apparently double the amount it had before it ended its invite-only beta in February. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/1829abb6-d8d0-4d67-9b1b-628f583b3291
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zo4HaEwestGcSQBcUTVBIwAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/28/musk_twitter_takeover/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zo4HaEwestGcSQBcUTVBIwAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zo4HaEwestGcSQBcUTVBIwAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/30/musk_murders_x/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/x_boss_elon_musk_ad_talk/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/12/x_hides_likes/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/30/russian_troll_influence/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/08/humans_not_bots_spread_fake_news_on_twitter/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/13/musk_twitter_on_hold/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/11/twitter_replies_useless/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/02/twitter_eliminating_all_free_api/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zo4HaEwestGcSQBcUTVBIwAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/21/x_sues_media_matters/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/25/musk_lawsuit_hate_speech/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/09/russian_ai_bot_farm/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/meta_threads_metaverse_connection/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/06/bluesky_social_media_opens/
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The social media zoo grew its daily active userbase by 1.6 percent in the 12 months since the second quarter of last year, according to internal figures obtained by the [1]Financial Times . X now averages 251 million daily active users around the world, up a few million from around 247 million in 2023.
While that increase is better than a decrease, it's nowhere near the growth Twitter used to enjoy up until very recently. We're told the app-site saw its userbase expand by around 15 percent in every single year from 2019 to 2022, with the exception of 2020 which exploded by around 35 percent.
[2]
Unfortunately for X and Elon, [3]who bought Twitter in late 2022 for $44 billion and renamed it early last year, there's a very conspicuous drop-off in growth after the Tesla tycoon's takeover. The second quarter of 2023 registered roughly a five percent increase, a far cry from the double-digits in previous years, according to the FT.
[4]
[5]
Perhaps X's stagnation can't be fully attributed to the site's management under Musk. After all, the pre-acquisition years saw pretty good growth, and there's a point where gaining even more users becomes more challenging. Facebook's growth is also famously [6]slowing after all these years albeit while still commanding an audience of billions.
That all said, telling key advertisers to " [7]go f**k' themselves " can't have helped matters.
[8]X boss Elon Musk tries to make nice with world at ad biz conference
[9]Adios, accountability: X to hide 'likes' for everyone this week
[10]Kremlin social media trolls aren't actually that influential, study finds
[11]Bots don't spread fake news on Twitter, people do, say MIT eggheads
Xitter has implemented substantial changes since Musk came along. He promised to do [12]something about spam bots on the app-site, though we'll let you decide how well that went, and how well it's faring now with automated accounts.
What we can note is that X is far more monetized than Twitter ever was, with the now infamous blue checkmark and [13]some DM functionality being locked behind a paywall. [14]The end of free API access over a year ago led to several third-party Twitter apps being discontinued, something that likely isn't conducive to user growth.
[15]
Musk himself has been controversial to say the least, as the xeeter-in-chief has made a habit of expressing pretty divisive views on X, such as in 2022 when he suggested Russian's war on Ukraine could be ended if Kyiv gave up Crimea, permitted new referendums to be held in the regions the Kremlin has annexed, and dropped its bid to join NATO. As opposed to, say, Russia being the ones to go f**k themselves right off out of it and pay for what it has done.
The SpaceX supremo claims to be a proponent of absolute free speech and has repeatedly said such openness is an important component of X. Though, it's not clear how dedicated to that cause Musk is, as X is [16]suing nonprofit Media Matters for investigating ads being placed next to hate speech on the platform. A similar suit [17]against another nonprofit was dismissed after a court ruled it was "about punishing the defendants for their speech."
X gone? Give it to ya
At least some of X's stalled growth is likely down to Threads, the Twitter competitor Facebook parent Meta released a year ago. According to X's reported internal data, in August nearly 60 percent of Threads users also used X, while just about 10 percent of X users were on the alternative platform.
FBI zaps 968 AI-fueled Russian Twitter bots [18]DON'T MISS
However, since then things have not been trending in X's favor as Threads grows to 175 million users. As of June, just about 40 percent of Threads users were also on X, down 20 percent. Meanwhile, a little under 20 percent of X users are now on Threads, too. Though, it's unclear if these trends will continue, and even if they do, they have apparently been very gradual according to the obtained data.
X also has smaller competitors in the form of the open source Mastodon network, the main gimmick of which is that it's federated, or split up into multiple decentralized but compatible networks. Threads has been working towards getting [19]connected to the fediverse since March, and full integration could turn the screws on X even further.
Bluesky, created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is also gaining traction and has recently [20]opened its doors to the public. The platform has around six million users according to unofficial estimates, and that's apparently double the amount it had before it ended its invite-only beta in February. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/1829abb6-d8d0-4d67-9b1b-628f583b3291
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zo4HaEwestGcSQBcUTVBIwAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/28/musk_twitter_takeover/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zo4HaEwestGcSQBcUTVBIwAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zo4HaEwestGcSQBcUTVBIwAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/30/musk_murders_x/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/x_boss_elon_musk_ad_talk/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/12/x_hides_likes/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/30/russian_troll_influence/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/08/humans_not_bots_spread_fake_news_on_twitter/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/13/musk_twitter_on_hold/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/11/twitter_replies_useless/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/02/twitter_eliminating_all_free_api/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zo4HaEwestGcSQBcUTVBIwAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/21/x_sues_media_matters/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/25/musk_lawsuit_hate_speech/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/09/russian_ai_bot_farm/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/meta_threads_metaverse_connection/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/06/bluesky_social_media_opens/
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Bots
doublelayer
He complained about bots before he bought the thing. Whether those bots actually existed or were his attempt to avoid buying something that wasn't a good idea to buy and he knew it by that point is harder to prove. It's also not clear whether changes he made had any effect on the number of bot accounts. In general, if they had as good a defense as you're suggesting they do, they would have included that defense and some attempt to back it up.
Re: Bots
CowHorseFrog
Probably. Musk deleted 43M bots, and 43M real people must have joined.
Re: Bots
Andrew Hodgkinson
If he did, then the number of bots I'm being DM'd by - mostly with random character names, so not even "bot001", more like "hV6YealzmEJg2U8S" - must be a coincidence. My follower base is small and changes very little, yet I now get at least one spam message a day from bots. Used to be maybe one a month or so. It's escalating.
Yes, of course, this is an anecdote providing only a single data point. Even so, I'd be more surprised to find that the growth, such as it is, is in fact real humans - rather than a decrease in human users and a continued rise in robots.
Doctor Syntax
"Growth of X's userbase has reportedly flatlined"
I'm sure generative AI will help restore growth.
bud-weis-er
And the Tesla shareholders will pay for any money he loses :)
Bendacious
Loving El Reg’s editorial decision to call it Twitter in the byline. I was hoping we could just decide to ignore the new name.There’s no law requiring us to go along with this deluded nonsense. Worst rename ever.
CowHorseFrog
How do we know the numbers are actually true ?
Bots
> We're told the app-site saw its userbase expand by around 15 percent in every single year from 2019 to 2022...
I thought that Musk discovered a huge number of bot accounts when he took over, and liquidated them. Perhaps this explains the lack of 'expansion'?