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Musk's X Faces Stagnation and Strife as Threads Surges Ahead · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:04
  Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
• 0:07
  the critical crossroads, the Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company, and Neuralink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
• 0:15
  Elon Musk's Platform X has seen a significant slowdown in user
• 0:20
  growth since he took over the platform for $44 billion in mid
• 0:25
  2022. Now, the platform, which had
• 0:28
  previously experienced robust growth, is now kind of
• 0:31
  struggling to maintain momentum. According to the data from the
• 0:35
  Financial Times, XS annual user growth has plummeted from around
• 0:39
  30% in 2022 to less than 2% in 2024.
• 0:45
  The platform saw only a 1.6% increase in daily active users
• 0:50
  over the past year, reaching approximately 251 million daily
• 0:55
  active users. X's app downloads has also
• 0:59
  stagnated, averaging around 100,000 daily iOS downloads.
• 1:05
  In contrast, Meta's Threads has been experiencing a higher
• 1:08
  download rate, with between 250,000 and 300,000 daily iOS
• 1:14
  downloads. So in total, Threads has
• 1:16
  achieved 51 million iOS downloads this year, more than
• 1:21
  double X's 20 million now. On the Android platform, Threads
• 1:25
  has also outpaced X, recording 87,000,000 downloads compared to
• 1:29
  X's 45,000,000. The significant difference
• 1:33
  highlights the increasing competition X faces from new
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  social media entrants like Threads now.
• 1:39
  Despite the challenges though, X still garners considerable web
• 1:42
  traffic, with over 2 billion total monthly visits now.
• 1:45
  This contrasts with Threads, which only saw 51.5 million
• 1:49
  monthly visits last month, according to similar web data.
• 1:54
  The disparity may be attributed to Threads focus on app native
• 1:57
  design, though it has recently added more web friendly
• 2:00
  features. But Threads recently reported
• 2:03
  having 175,000,000 monthly active users, translating to
• 2:07
  about 38 million daily users, according to Sensor Tower.
• 2:10
  This suggests that Threads users are not as engaged as those on
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  X, which has a more established base to frequent users.
• 2:18
  Now X having been around for nearly two decades, 20 years
• 2:22
  ish, maintains a larger user base compared to the relatively
• 2:26
  new Threads. However, the rapid growth of
• 2:28
  Threads, fueled by Meta's promotion through Instagram,
• 2:31
  indicates a shifting social media landscape.
• 2:34
  And since Musk acquired X, it's undergone several controversial
• 2:39
  changes. These include rebranding from
• 2:41
  Twitter to X, attempting to shift towards a video centric
• 2:44
  platform, and introducing the AI bot Grok.
• 2:48
  Such moves have not been universally well received, and
• 2:51
  it contributed to a 40% revenue decline shortly after Musk took
• 2:55
  over. Now, Musk's tenure has been
• 2:58
  marked by a loss of advertisers, too, partly due to his stance as
• 3:02
  a free speech absolutist and the removal of many content
• 3:05
  moderators. Critics argue that these actions
• 3:08
  have made the platform more toxic, though Musk defends them
• 3:11
  as necessary to mitigate financial losses.
• 3:14
  Now, Meta's Threads, which was launched about a year ago, has
• 3:18
  taken a different approach. By deploying existing moderation
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  teams and avoiding the amplification of news or
• 3:23
  political content, the strategy aims to sidestep the negativity
• 3:27
  and scrutiny faced by other platforms.
• 3:29
  And according to similar web user engagement on X has been
• 3:33
  declining, especially during national election campaigns in
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  the USUK and France. However, X disputes these
• 3:41
  findings, asserting that his monthly user numbers have
• 3:43
  increased significantly in these regions.
• 3:46
  And the financial health of X has been a concern since Musk
• 3:49
  took over, with the company struggling to attract new
• 3:53
  advertising revenue. Tensions between Musk and ex CEO
• 3:57
  Linda Yaccarino have reportedly been rising as of late,
• 4:01
  particularly regarding the company's revenue challenges.
• 4:05
  Yaccarino, who became CEO in June after a career at NBC
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  Universal, has faced significant pressure to stabilize XS
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  financial health. Musk has been pushing her to
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  raise revenues and cut expenses, adding to the challenges of her
• 4:19
  role. Now, internal documents reveal
• 4:22
  that X risked losing up to $75 million in revenue due to
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  advertisers halting or planning to halt ads on the platform.
• 4:30
  Musk made some hostile remarks towards some advertisers.
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  It's not helped in retaining or regaining their business or
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  getting new businesses to sign up.
• 4:40
  Musk has been attempting to woo back advertisers though, meeting
• 4:43
  with ad buyers at major events like the Con Lions Festival.
• 4:47
  However, these efforts have yet to fully restore confidence
• 4:50
  among any advertisers. So in light of the financial
• 4:54
  pressures, X has been undergoing a leadership shake up.
• 4:57
  Steve Davis, a longtime Musk ally, has been brought in to
• 5:00
  review the company's finances and employee performance,
• 5:03
  leading to potential job cuts in the future.
• 5:06
  Social media consultant Matt Navarro notes that the ongoing
• 5:09
  chaos and leadership changes at X are likely impacting employee
• 5:12
  morale in the company's perceived stability.
• 5:15
  The transition from Twitter to X has already been traumatic for
• 5:18
  many employees. Now, Yakarino's appointment was
• 5:21
  initially met with optimism, with some hoping her partnership
• 5:24
  with Musk would replicate the success of Gwynn Shotwell and
• 5:29
  Musk at SpaceX. However, the challenges at X
• 5:32
  have proven to be formidable, raising questions about the
• 5:35
  platform's future viability and also how long will Yakarino be
• 5:40
  there. X user growth has stalled
• 5:43
  apparently under Elon Musk. So there's financial and
• 5:47
  significant challenges in maintaining the user engagement
• 5:50
  and attracting new advertisers. Meanwhile, Threads is rapidly
• 5:54
  growing leveraging its integration with Instagram and
• 5:58
  the future of X remains uncertain.
• 6:01
  But if it turns into an everything platform, the users
• 6:04
  that they have now could be pivoting into a user that
• 6:09
  purchases something. So the revenue could be growing
• 6:13
  and also X could become a bank in the future too.
• 6:18
  So keep an eye out on this channel For more information
• 6:21
  about that as we get the information.
• 6:31
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 6:32
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 6:35
  If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow
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  button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
• 6:40
  on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
• 6:42
  It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
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  miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
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  minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
• 6:51
  And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
• 6:54
  to patreon.com/stage Zero. And please take care of
• 6:59
  yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.