X Sees Sharp Decline in Daily Active Users Under Elon Musk's Leadership

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X Sees Sharp Decline in Daily Active Users Under Elon Musk's Leadership
02 Oct 2023
5 min read

News Synopsis

Since Elon Musk assumed leadership at X, formerly Twitter, the platform has witnessed a notable decline in daily active users. This revelation surfaced during the recent Vox Media's Code 2023 tech conference, where X CEO Linda Yaccarino disclosed a decrease in the daily active user base to 225 million, signaling a significant drop since Musk's acquisition.

User Base Decline:

The recent figures represent a decline of tens of millions, approximately 11.6%, compared to the numbers just before Musk's takeover. In November of the preceding year, Musk had tweeted that Twitter had 254.5 million daily active users, indicating a decrease under Musk's leadership.

Revised User Count:

Following Yaccarino's revelation, X revised its daily active user count to 245 million, although this still signifies a loss of several million users, around 3.7%, since Musk acquired the company. The revised numbers are lower than those shared by Musk himself, indicating a decline of nearly 15 million users, roughly 5.6%, from the daily active user count late last year.

Metrics Shift:

While Twitter had been disclosing monetizable daily active users (mDAU) before Musk's involvement, he has shifted the focus to "unregretted user minutes," a metric seemingly introduced by Elon Musk himself. This shift from traditional metrics makes it challenging to directly compare user engagement under Musk's leadership with the company's performance before his takeover.

Monthly Active Users:

Yaccarino also revealed that X now boasts a record 550 million monthly active users, seemingly indicating growth from the 541 million "monthly users" metric shared by Musk in a previous post in July.

However, the extent of this monthly active user growth under Musk's leadership remains unclear due to Twitter ceasing to report this particular number in 2019.

Some relevant and latest facts about the decline in daily active users at X under Elon Musk's leadership:

  • X CEO Linda Yaccarino recently confirmed that the company's daily active user base has dwindled to 225 million, down from 254.5 million just before Musk's acquisition in late November 2022. This represents a decline of nearly 11.6%.

  • Even after X revised its daily active user count to 245 million, this still represents a decline of around 3.7% since Musk took over. This is even lower than the 259.4 million daily active users that Musk himself claimed the platform had in November 2022.

  • The reasons for the decline in daily active users under Musk's leadership are unclear. Some experts have speculated that it may be due to Musk's controversial policies and statements, while others have pointed to broader trends in social media usage.

  • X CEO Yaccarino also revealed that the company now has a record 550 million monthly active users. However, it is difficult to compare this growth to the company's performance prior to Musk's takeover, as Twitter ceased reporting monthly active users in 2019.

  • Musk has shifted away from both daily and monthly active user numbers, instead focusing on a new metric called "unregretted user minutes." This metric measures the amount of time that users spend on the platform without clicking away. It is unclear how this metric will be used to measure the success of X under Musk's leadership.

It is important to note that these are just a few of the relevant and latest facts about the decline in daily active users at X under Elon Musk's leadership. More research is needed to fully understand the reasons for this decline and its implications for the future of the platform.

TWN Special