Are we witnessing an exodus? The day after the victory of Donald Trump and his best support, the billionaire owner of the social network X Elon Musk, the social network's competitors are rubbing their hands.
1. Why are we talking about the fall of social network X?
The economic results of the social network are not there. Since the takeover of Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, the social network renamed X has been in decline. The investment giant Fidelity has revised its value downward several times: today estimated at $9.4 billion. The Brand Finance firm estimates that the value of brand X is in free fall: from 5.7 billion in 2022 to 673 million dollars in 2024.
X for its part claims 547 million active users. According to several economic observers, this assertion is false. Statista estimates that the number of users is decreasing: 368 million users in 2022, 335 million in 2024. On the advertiser side, the company Kantar affirms that only 4% of advertisers now consider X as a safe platform for brands. This is little compared to other social networks like Youtube or Instagram.
2. Is an exodus to other social networks underway?
Bluesky gained more than a million users in a week, 4.5 million since the September presidential campaign intensified in the United States. Same observation for Threads owned by the Meta group which reached 275 million users, a gain of 100 million users in less than 6 months.
“Hello, less hateful world,” billionaire Mark Cuban, supporter of Kamala Harris, published Tuesday on Bluesky. On the media side, the famous British newspaper The Guardian and the Spanish newspaper Le Vanguardia have decided to no longer publish anything on the X platform. “The US presidential election campaign has only served to highlight what we have long believed: that X is a toxic media platform and its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use his influence to shape political discourse”publishes the newspaper in a press release.
3. How is Elon Musk responsible?
In 2022, Elon Musk buys the social network from the blue bird. A few days later, he fired 7,500 people, denigrating the need for moderation of certain hateful or sensitive content. It removes certain functions of the social network, such as verification badges, which can now be obtained for payment.
The owner of Tesla makes no secret of using the platform for his personal purposes. In April, the richest man in the world according to Forbes replaced the blue bird logo with that of his cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. In recent weeks, he has been very active in promoting the candidacy of Donald Trump who has just announced his appointment as minister.
A nomination that says a lot. Multiple conflicts of interest are already anticipated. It remains to know the limits of the “free speech” that Musk promotes regarding the uncensored social network, accused of becoming a platform overwhelmed by violence, porn, and “fake news”. This October 15, Reporters Without Borders has just filed a complaint in France against Elon Musk's social network, accusing it of “deliberate inaction” and “complicity” in the face of “defamatory content.”
France
