However you may feel about him personally, you have to admit that in the cliched “all publicity is good publicity” sense, Elon Musk may be among the best to ever do it.
Earlier in the month, Musk decided, for whatever reason, that his alliance with U.S. President Trump had come to an end, which led to a public spat between the two, in which Musk seemingly burned various bridges with Trump and his supporters.
That seems bad for Musk’s business interests, as it could see Tesla and SpaceX lose valuable government grants and contracts, while it could also risk losing the MAGA crowd on X, where they now drive significant engagement.
But in the immediate term at least, X is spinning it as a positive, by highlighting the subsequent increase in in-app activity resulting from the Trump-Musk blow-up.
As you can see, X is claiming that it’s seen an increase in its daily to monthly active user ratio, rising to 45%, while it’s also seen an 8% rise on overall daily active usage in the last two weeks, versus the first week of June (the Trump/Elon stoush kicked off at the end of that first week).
So, more controversy is good for business on X, even if it could be less beneficial for Musk and Co. in the long run.
Though the daily to monthly active user ratio is a little less impressive when compared to X’s previously communicated usage numbers.
Back in March, when xAI announced that it would be acquiring X, Musk claimed that X is now up to 600 million monthly active users. X has repeatedly noted that its daily active user count is 250 million, where it’s been sitting since November 2022, which would put X’s DAU/MAU ratio at 41%.
So an increase to 45% suggests that X’s daily actives have increased to around 270 million, based on these figures.
Yet, in March 2023, X claimed to have reached a new user milestone of 500 million MAU, with 250 million DAU at the time. So X’s average MAU/DAU ratio had been at 50% for some time, potentially till this year, which means that a 45% ratio on this front is actually a decline on previous usage.
Though, even so, an increase is better. We don’t know the specifics of the numbers being compared here, because X doesn’t provide regular user count updates. But going on its most recently shared figures, it is seemingly seeing some improvement in active engagement this month.
For comparison, the average MAU/DAU figure for all the major social apps is just over 50%, so X is still behind the norm on this front.
Does that really matter?
Well, on a smaller scale, no. If your target audience is active on X, and you’re looking to connect with them, then using X as a promotional tool will be just as effective, whether that means it has a million, or 250 million users.
But on a broader scale, it is relevant.
Despite seeing some big brands resuming their ad spend in the app, X is still struggling to make money, and with a significant debt burden (as part of Musk’s funding to buy the company), along with potential fines incoming from EU authorities, X will once again be very close to, if not below break even in 2025. And there’s not a lot of light at the end of the tunnel, because X isn’t growing at a rapid rate, and as such, it isn’t boosting its advertiser appeal.
Add to this the rising competition from Threads, and short-form video apps siphoning off the majority of audience attention, and X really needs to be boosting those usage figures, in a significant way, and adding new ad products, in order to get itself back on track.
The revenue burden has been eased somewhat by the xAI takeover, as X can now utilize cash invested in Elon’s AI project as well, but that’s also reportedly burning through cash at a rapid rate.
So on a broader scale, it is important that X is growing its user base, and enhancing its appeal. Which, the numbers suggest, it’s not actually doing.
But if Elon can keep saying controversial things, and drawing focus back on the app, that’ll help. Despite X’s reporting, its official figures show that X is slowly declining in usage, but if it can keep propping up those numbers every now and then, and promote that as a rise in interest, while also doubling-down on the somewhat misleading fact that it’s “the number one news app” on iOS, then maybe that’ll help to keep advertiser interest somewhat stable, at least.
