It’s been almost two years since Elon Musk bought X, formerly Twitter, for $44 billion — and so much has happened since — but X appears ever farther from profitability.
Recent internal documents obtained by The New York Times reveal that in the second quarter of 2024, X’s US revenue dropped to $114 million, marking a 25% decline from the first quarter and a staggering 53% decrease compared to the previous year.
The company aims to reach $190 million in US revenue for the third quarter, bolstered by advertising associated with major events like the Olympics and political campaigns. However, even if this target is met, it would still represent a 25% decrease from the same period last year.
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In 2022, before Musk’s acquisition, Twitter generated $4.4 billion in revenue. This declined to approximately $3.4 billion in 2023, Musk’s first year at the helm.
While X has significantly reduced operating costs by cutting around 80% of its staff, the company is currently straddled with an additional annual burden of $1.2 billion in debt servicing costs resulting from Musk’s $44 billion purchase.
Historically, Twitter derived about 50% of its revenue from US users. Assuming this ratio still holds, X’s total global revenue for Q2 2023 could be estimated at around $230 million. This represents a continuation of the downward trend observed in Q1, which likely saw total revenue of about $287 million.
It’s not clear whether it’s because Musk told advertisers to go f*ck themselves, or if it’s because the platform is increasingly turning into an unmoderated, possibly censored (or manually promoted, depending on where you stand) cesspool, but X is in a bad financial place and there’s no light at the end of the tunnel yet in sight.
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