Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, now X, has been a struggle — and now it looks like the platform’s user growth has stalled.
According to figures seen by the Financial Times, X said its number of global daily active users was 251 million in the second quarter of this year — just 1.6% above what it was a year ago. Before Musk acquired the social media platform for $44 billion in October 2022, Twitter had experienced double-digit year-over-year growth, including 33.8% growth in the second quarter of 2022.
Meanwhile, X said Tuesday the platform had around 570 million monthly active users during the second quarter — up 6% year-over-year.
Many users have left the platform over concerns about hate speech since Musk’s takeover. That combined with Musk’s fight with major advertisers, including Walmart and Disney, has sent the company’s value tumbling 71.5% since Musk’s takeover.
As of November 2023, X was worth $12.5 billion, according to a disclosure from Fidelity — which had worked with Musk on his purchase of the platform — obtained by Axios. Months earlier, a leaked memo valued X at $19 billion — or less than half of what he paid for it in 2022. Analysts have said X is falling behind its rivals, and daily active users on the platform were down 23% from October 2022 to March.
Meta’s rival platform, Threads, reached 175 million monthly active users in its first year, according to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. In April, Threads counted 28 million daily active users, beating out X, which had 22 million.
Threads was the fastest-growing app ever when it was released last July, and counted 100 million sign-ups in its first week. However, usage eventually fell, and Zuckerberg said in an earnings call in February the platform had “[blown] up before we’re ready for them to.”