Elon Musk bought X two years ago. He has since used it as a platform and has largely supported Donald Trump in the American election. He could become a minister. Is this a problem?
Elon Musk bought Twitter which became X two years ago, but he is not the boss. He's an owner and we have a CEO Linda Yaccarino, who comes from NBC Universal, who is running the company. In his use of the platform – without commenting on the American elections – Elon Musk is a user like any other. It can be a platform, it is up to everyone to use it as such. To anticipate the questions we are asking, there are studies that have been carried out in the United States by third parties which demonstrate that the population of users of country. In the United States, there are even slightly more Democrats on the platform than Republicans.
In the United States, his attitude scared away subscribers. We are talking about 30% of users having left the platform and advertising revenues having melted away. How do you react? What about in France?
These figures are false. It is everyone's freedom to express themselves, however, I question some of the methodologies that are used. In this case, on the entire platform compared to last year, the population is up by two or three points. Very far from the drop of tens of percent that we are announcing. In our country, what is authentic is Médiamétrie. In July, it announced 21 million monthly users on X. This is an absolute record, we have never had so many people since Médiamétrie began measuring our audience. What is also interesting is the use. The Ballon d'Or, for example, made 3.2 billion impressions in three days. X's health is good, no offense to some who would like to see us fail.
You were at Twitter before Elon Musk arrived. You are one of the rare executives to have remained following the takeover and you had the opportunity to meet him. You speak of him as a visionary…
I'm not the only one to say this. What is interesting, beyond the caricatured images, is to see what is accomplished. Elon Musk has the right to have his own opinions, we may not always agree with him, that's my case. On the other hand, what he achieves is impressive. I have seen the change for two years, we have never innovated so much and I have been with the company for ten years. He carries this dynamic.
“Elon Musk has the right to have his own opinions, we may not always agree with him, that’s my case. On the other hand, what he achieves is impressive”
France is one of the countries in Europe where X is most used, along with England. What makes the French market unique?
The typology of use resembles what we observe in other countries. This may seem surprising, but the first use concerns sport, by far. We have more than 20% of users who are there for sport, particularly football in France. Uses are increasing for Roland-Garros, the Tour de France, etc. MMA is booming. Gaming has always been very strong, then comes entertainment and series. Politics only comes as the fifth subject. There is a whole population of opinion leaders, politicians or journalists, who are very active but this does not represent the majority of usage on our platform.
You have set up paid accounts. For what reason?
There are two reasons for this. The first is a necessary diversification of our income so as not to be dependent only on advertising. The second motivation is the fight against fake accounts and bots. Having an account that is both paid and requires some administrative procedures helps clean up bad behavior.
How do you fight against fake news? X is regularly pinned on this subject…
I think it's a false trial. The great strength of X, as was the case for Twitter, is to be very fast. We are in the moment, in the information. This is why we have significant figures for major events like the Olympic Games or elections. The corollary is misinformation. We understood this issue and we have deployed, for two years, a tool called Community note. This system allows contributors to add context notes to a publication, which can be summed up as “it's true, it's false”. But a study conducted by HEC showed that in 80% of cases the person will remove their post.
