The number of social media app users, X (formerly Twitter), for Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, continues to decrease, NBC reported on the 23rd.
According to the mobile app market analysis company Sensor Tower, the average daily active user count of mobile apps in the U.S. last month was around 27 million, showing an approximate 18% decrease compared to the previous year. Compared to November 2022, when Musk first acquired X, the user count shrunk by about 23%.
This trend isn’t limited to just the U.S. The mobile app’s global daily active user count in February also recorded approximately 174 million, a decrease of about 15% compared to the same period last year. Sensor Tower explained, “Except for a slight increase in October 2022, right after Musk’s acquisition, the global user count has either plateaued or decreased monthly.”
This contrasts with other social media apps, which saw a slight increase in their global user base during the same period. Snapchat saw an 8.8% increase in global users during the same period. Instagram increased by 5.3%, Facebook by 1.5%, and TikTok by 0.5%. While these apps also saw a decrease in U.S. users during the same period, Sensor Tower noted that none experienced a steep decline like X.
Abraham Youssef, a senior analyst at Sensor Tower, analyzed in a research report that “X’s active user count has decreased more than its competitors” and “The decrease in active users of the X mobile app could be due to user dissatisfaction with provocative content, general platform technical issues, and the increasing threat of short-form video platforms.”
After acquiring X, Musk relaxed the review regulations that limited hate content like white supremacy and restored some user accounts that the former Twitter management had blocked. Following Donald Trump, the former U.S. president, and hip-hop artist Kanye West, he also restored the X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who claims the 9/11 attack was a staged hoax after five years.
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