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.
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