Elon Musk’s rebranded social media venture, X (formerly Twitter), has witnessed its valuation plummet to nearly half of the acquisition price of $44 billion in 2022, as per recent internal disclosures. A memo dated October 30 revealed that the per share price, gauged through the recent restricted stock units awarded to employees, stands at $45, pushing the firm’s valuation to around $19 billion.
Since Musk’s takeover, the platform has undergone radical alterations including a rebranding to X, a drastic modification of content policies, and a workforce reduction by approximately 80%. These changes seem to have not resonated well with the user base, marking a nearly 20% drop in daily active users, and eliciting a sharp decline in advertiser appeal.
Reportedly, X has lost over half of its total advertising revenue. This significant revenue dip has heightened concerns regarding the management of the firm’s existing debt, which, as of now, encapsulates around $1.2 billion in interest payments against a total debt of nearly $13 billion.
A shift towards a paid subscription model was envisaged by Musk to counter revenue adversities, yet, less than 1% of the users have opted for a premium subscription, translating to under $120 million in annual revenue. This sluggish response juxtaposes Musk’s ambitious vision of transforming X into an ‘everything app’, akin to Asia’s super apps like WeChat, encompassing a plethora of services ranging from financial transactions to video calls.
Moreover, amidst these challenges, Musk has introduced a revenue-sharing model to reward individual content creators for their platform engagement. A notable policy change includes the negation of revenue share for posts corrected by the Community Notes feature, underlining Musk’s commitment to prioritize accurate information over virality. This move, albeit aimed at quality control, casts a shadow on the platform’s monetization strategies amidst a declining user base and advertising revenue.
