NICKIE LOUISE FROM TECH STARTUPS
Earlier this week, Elon Musk rebranded Twitter to ‘X’ to reflect his vision of creating what he described as the “everything app.” As part of the major rebranding effort, Musk replaced the iconic Twitter bird logo with the letter “X.” However, the critics wasted no time voicing their doubts, with some saying that “Twitter’s rebrand to X is destined to fail.”
In a short span of just five days, the results are in, and, as usual, Musk has once again proved the naysayers wrong. While it’s still early to draw definite conclusions, the initial result indicates that the rebrand has been a resounding success. In a post shared this afternoon, Musk said the X has set a new record in the number of monthly users in 2023.
” monthly users reach new high in 2023,” Musk tweeted.
𝕏 monthly users reach new high in 2023 pic.twitter.com/trqLGBEvvA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2023
As you can see from the picture below monthly users reached 541, 562,214 as of July 28, 2023.
The good news didn’t stop there. Musk also indicated that the new record is after the bot numbers were removed.
“Also, this is after removal of a vast number of bots,” Musk added.
While the rebrand appears to be working well for Musk, it is a different story for Threads, the so-called Meta’s Twitter killer. according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s own report, Meta’s Threads has lost more than half of its users who downloaded the new app earlier this month.
The bad news didn’t end there for Zuck. Since the July 5 launch, Threads engagement and daily active users plunged to 13 million, a drop of around 70%, according to data from data marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
Zuckerberg also reportedly told employees, “Obviously, if you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally, it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We’re not there yet.”
In the meantime, Reuters also reported that it obtained a copy of Meta’s internal town hall meeting with its employees. According to Zuckerberg, the decline in users was perceived as a typical drop-off, and he anticipated that user retention would improve as they introduced new features.
To address the issue, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox revealed Meta’s plans to implement additional “retention-driving hooks” aimed at enticing users back to the text-based social media platform and halting the user exodus.
Meanwhile, Musk remains confident about the future of X. The change is set to reshape the platform and potentially expand its functionality beyond its traditional social media roots.
In a recent interview at The World Government Summit 2023 (below), Musk explained why he bought Twitter, his long-term vision, and how Twitter would serve as an accelerant for ‘X,’ ‘The Everything App.” Musk added that “X would become half of the global financial system if done right.”
X is finally arriving! 🔥
X will be an “everything app” i.e. super app for U.S. (like WeChat of China)
• Social: network, msgs, video, content
• Finance: banking, payments, data“Overtime it would be HALF of global financial system” – Elon Muskpic.twitter.com/wWywAdYRZR
— Brandon Hoffman (@BrandonHoffman_) July 14, 2023
