While much has been made of Elon Musk’s various changes at the platform formerly known Twitter, it’s hard to tell exactly how significant the impacts of those updates and shifts have been.
Because while third party reports indicate that X is losing users, and that Threads is rising as an alternative, X itself continues to claim that it’s reaching new record highs in usage, even if its actual user count isn’t increasing.
In other words, X is becoming more compulsive for those sticking around, despite the download numbers not shifting.
Which means that both the internal and external reports on X’s performance could be true, and recently we got another indicator of where X is placed, and how its broader usage trends are looking.
As part of the E.U. Digital Services Act, all large online platforms are required to regularly report their E.U. user counts, in order to ensure transparency.
Which X reported last week:
As you can see, as of January 2024, X was serving 61.8 million logged in E.U. users, and 49.6 million logged out guests, for a total of 111.4 million overall users in the region.
Which is a slight dip on its previous report from early last year:
Slightly more logged in users, slightly fewer logged out guests, for an overall dip of 0.8 million users.
Which is seemingly indicative of the broader trend for X, that while it is losing users, it’s not seeing a meteoric decline, and people aren’t turning away from the app in record numbers.
Yet, it’s also not seeing any growth.
Though as X claims, the people that are engaging there are spending more time in the app, and at 250 million daily actives, X still has a significant audience, even if it isn’t expanding.
I mean, it’s also not anywhere close to reaching Elon’s projections of 600 million users by 2025. But the demise of X is also, seemingly, not happening as many had expected.
Which could mean that it’ll remain an important platform for some time yet.
X’s main strength is that it’s a habitual platform for many, with communities around sports, in particular, still highly aligned with the app. They’ve established communities there, made connections, and they can maintain their activity as always. The changes at the app, and Elon’s broader political commentary, don’t really mean a lot to them, and most seem happy to continue using the platform as they always have.
Which means that if you’re trying to reach these audiences, you’ll still need to consider X as a viable advertising option, no matter what your own opinion on Elon’s project may be.
X also claims to be improving its ad system, which could provide more opportunities, and if your audience is there, you probably should be too.
It’s a difficult dichotomy for some, because Musk’s own stances are so polarizing.
But if they’re not so polarizing for you, or your audience is there, right now at least, X’s audience, while it is declining slowly, is still massive, and still offers potential for relevant reach.