X (formerly Twitter), the social media company founded in 2006, is now ubiquitous via its posts—formerly called tweets—on the internet and all forms of media. It’s best known for news-breaking tweets from politicians and celebrities, but it provides a platform for millions of users to publish their thoughts, interact, share content, and read breaking news.

The platform itself is free to use for individuals and businesses alike, though many of the features that enhance user experiences (such as editing posts and user verification) are now locked behind a X Premium subscription with prices starting at $3 a month up to $32 a year.

X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue and X Blue) first launched in 2021 as a subscription service, offering enhanced features like undoing a tweet and saving bookmarks to folders. X owner Elon Musk relaunched the program in November 2022 and introduced major changes like a blue checkmark in the features for paying users.

Once a user has created an account, they can post messages of up to 280 characters and up to 2,400 times per day, which are automatically distributed to followers in a feed that is constantly refreshed.

X parent, X Corp. (formerly Twitter Inc.), divides its revenue into three categories: the sale of advertising services, the sale of data licensing and other services, and the Premium subscription. Although X has lost nearly half of its advertising revenue since Musk’s澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网: takeover, it still constitutes the vast majority of the company’s revenue.

X’s major competitors include other social media companies like Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. (META), Google and YouTube parent Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), Snap Inc. (SNAP), and others.

X’s Industry

Twitter Inc. was initially a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:social media company based in San Francisco, California. It operated the social networking service Twitter and previously the Vine app and Periscope livestreaming service. In 2023, Twitter Inc. ceased to be an independent company after merging with a newly formed shell firm 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:called X Corp.

澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp are also leaders in the social media industry with monthly active users ranging from 3.03 billion (Facebook) to 1.59 billion (TikTok).

According to Grand View Research, the social networking app market was valued at $49.09 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 26.2% from 2023 to 2030. Key factors that are driving the social networking app market growth include the rising demand for 5G technology, the surge in adoption of personalized feed-based apps, and the growing demand for encrypted and self-destructive messaging-based social apps.

X operates worldwide as a microblog♑ging service through a ಞplatform for putting out content in a fast way. X solved the problem of Facebook posts and popular blogs that provide articles that can be too long to read.

X’s Financials

According to the latest data available, X generated $3.4 billion in revenue in 2023, a 22% decline from 2022 ($4.4 billion).

Revenue was expected to decrease in 2023 due to a loss of advertising, and in fact, the company has lost almost half of its advertising revenue since Musk’s acquisition in October 2022. Many global advertisers left the company after changes to X’s service and content moderation rules. Agency executives who have worked with X said their clients continued to limit spending on the platform due to “inconsistent support from Twitter and concerns about the persistent presence of misleading and toxic content.”

Musk declared that the company hasn’t yet seen an increase in sales and confirmed cash flow remains negative and the company is struggling with heavy debt. Still, X generates the majority of its revenue through advertising (75%, or $2.5 billion in 2023). It also generated about $900 million from data licensing (about 26% of total revenue) in 2023.

The loss of advertising demand has fueled the need to find alternative revenue streams and rebuild the company’s revenue model. X Premium is part of this strategy: a subscription service that allows users to access premium features and benefits on the app and that is available for $11 per month (or the local equivalent and $114.99 a year) on iOS and Android, and $8 ($84 a year) on the web.

X Premium was originally called X Blue, and it made just $11 million on mobile in its first three months since it was relaunched on Nov. 4, 2022. Although the $11 million seems small when compared to the two other revenue streams, this figure doesn’t cover web-based subscriptions. It’s still uncertain how this revenue stream will evolve, in part because the $11 million figure doesn’t specify how much comes from monthly subscriptions vs. annual subscriptions.

X’s History, Leadership, and Developments

Twitter was created by former Odeo employees Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone, and publicly launched in July 2006. Originally, the site used SMS to send tweets onto the network and its defining features were the tight limits placed on each post or “tweet” (140 characters, doubled to 280 in 2017).

On April 25, 2022, Twitter announced that Elon Musk, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Tesla Inc., would acquire the company for $44 billion. Upon closing, the company would become privately held with all shareholders receiving $54.20 in cash for each share of the company owned.

The road to sealing the deal was rocky, but Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter on Oct. 27, 2022. Musk acted as CEO of Twitter until he stepped down in June 2023 and was replaced by Linda Yaccarino, who previously was the chair of advertising sales for NBCUniversal.

Soon, Musk began making changes to the company and introduced a series of reforms and management changes, raising concerns about the company’s ability to maintain its platform. Its workforce was drastically reduced by laying off half of the employees on Nov. 4, 2022, in order to cut costs (a measure taken to compensate for the drop in the company’s revenue). In total, about 80% of X’s staff has been laid off since Musk took over the company, or more than 6,000 people. As of 2023, the latest information available, the social media platform has only 1,500 employees, down from under 8,000 who were employed at the time of the acquisition.

On Nov. 20, 2022, Musk also reinstated Donald Trump’s account (the then-former U.S. president was banned from the platform for inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol riots in 2021), causing advertisers to pull off due to what was seen as relaxed content moderation policies. More than half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers in September 2022 (including major brands such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Jeep, and Wells Fargo) were no longer spending on the platform as of January 2023.

(Musk’s ties to Trump grew closer in 2024, with the X owner donating to and campaigning for Trump’s election. After Trump was elected president in November 2024, he tapped Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head what he called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to focus on regulating government spending. Following Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, he signed an executive order officially creating DOGE.)

In December 2022, the Twitter Blue (now X Premium) subscription service was relaunched as a way to generate revenue. In 2023, Twitter Inc. ceased to be an independent company after merging with a newly formed shell X Corp., a privately owned company operating within the X Holding Co.

The Bottom Line

X generated $3.4 billion revenue in 2023, a 22% decline on 2022 figures. Revenue was expected to be worse in 2023 due 💃to a loss of advertising revenue. Still, 75% of X’s revenue came from advertising in 2023. X Premium, a paid subscription service, was launched 😼as a way to generate non-advertising-based revenue, but the question of how much subscriptions will bring remains uncertain.