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 X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter experience a pretty large outage on Thursday
morning. This marked the most severe disruption since Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform in October of 2022. Now this incident, which affected over 90,000 users globally, coincided with a spike in interest for Meta's Threads app. Users started reporting issues on X between 12:00 AM and 3:00 AM Eastern on Thursday. The problems were primarily encountered on the app, affecting approximately 70% of
the reports. A Users worldwide face difficulties accessing the platform, making this the largest outage since Musk's takeover. Concurrently with the X outage, there was a notable rise in Google searches for Threads in the United States.
Now Threads, another social media app made by Meta, gained attention as a stable alternative amidst X service interruption, continue its trend to acquire users from X. And before this outage, X had been actively rolling out new features, including job postings and the AI chatbot Grok. However, these innovations have not stemmed the user migration to Threads, which has been expanding its user base rapidly, reaching significant milestone in just a few months.
Now, the platform under Musk's leadership operates with a significantly reduced workforce and the current staff count stands at approximately 2000 people, which is a stark reduction from the 7000 employees before Musk's acquisition as reported by TechCrunch. Now, the reason behind the outage remains unclear and X had recently undergone an update, but is not confirmed whether the update was related to the service disruption. The lack of clarity adds to the concerns surrounding the
platform stability. Now, more than 94,000 users have reported issues at the peak of the outage, according to Down Detector, and there's probably more people that were affected and the reports gradually decreased over time. But the global impact was significant, with net blocks confirming A substantial international outage. And during the outage, certain features of X remained operational. Users could post, although these posts were not visible after refreshing.
Additionally, a space hosted by a New York Times reporter attracted over 800 participants discussing the outage in real time. Now, the official response from X regarding the outage was limited. Automated messages from the platform's PR account provided no substantial information, leaving users and those dependent on the platform services in the dark. And the incident is not the first outage under Musk.
There have been several interruptions since late of 2022, with another major outage occurring in July, affecting about 50,000 users. The recurring outages are A cause for concern among the user base now. According to Down Detector, over 47,000 users in the US also faced access issues. The outage was also noticeable among users in the UK and Asia, indicating its wide reaching
effects. Now the hashtag Twitter Down quickly trended following reports of the outage, highlighting the platform's significant user engagement despite the service interruptions. The outage lasted for just over an hour, after which users regained access to the platform, and the swift recovery was a relief to many. But it also raised questions about the platform's operational stability and preparedness for
future incidents. And since Musk's acquisition of X, formerly known as Twitter, the platform has faced A noticeable decline in advertising revenue. The decrease is a significant concern for the social media giant, which historically relied heavily on ad revenues as its primary income source. And the recent outage, which affected just about 100,000 people, 90,000 plus people, exacerbates these financial woes.
Advertisers typically seek stability in a broad reach in platforms they invest in. Recurrent outages, such as the one experienced recently undermine advertiser confidence, leading to a reluctance to place ads on a platform that may not be reliably accessible to its audience. Now. This drop in advertiser interest in spending could have a lasting edit this out now.
This drop in advertising interest in spending could have a lasting impact on X's revenue streams, especially in a competitive social media market where advertisers have numerous alternatives. Now, beyond immediate financial implications, repeated technical issues and outages under Musk's tenure could erode user trust and negatively affect X's brand
image. Users and advertisers alike look for consistency and reliability in social media platforms, and frequent disruptions can lead to a decline in user engagement and loyalty. This aspect is crucial that social media platforms thrive on active user engagement. Now a decline in user trust can create ripple effect leading not only to reduced advertising revenue but also to a potential
drop in user base. This scenario is particularly challenging for X as it competes with other platforms like Metas Threads which has capitalized on being a stable alternative. Now maintaining user trust is essential for X to ensure its long term viability and market competitiveness. And looking at the long term financial outlook for X, the combination of declining ad revenue, potential, loss of user base and operational challenges presents a complex scenario.
X may need to explore new revenue models to diversify its income sources. This could involve the introduction of innovative features, enhanced subscription services or tapping into new market segments. Moreover, addressing technical stability issues is paramount to regain advertiser confidence. The strategic decisions made by Musk and the X leadership in the coming months will be critical in determining the platform's financial health, its position
in the social media market. Now The recent outage at X raises important questions about the platform's technical robustness in the strategic direction under Musk as users continue to seek stable alternatives like threads. The future of X remains closely watched by us on this podcast, so please stay tuned For more information. Hey, thank you so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your support.
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