SINCE its acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk for $44 billion in October 2022, X, formerly known as Twitter, has been grappling with a loss of users and advertising revenue.
This trend has continued into 2024, despite the platform's plans to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance search functionality, improve advertisements, and streamline the user experience. The latest data show that user engagement on X has dropped significantly, presenting yet another challenging year for the platform. According to data from OnlyAccounts.io, X's user engagement rate has decreased by nearly 40 percent year over year, continuing the downward trend seen in 2023.
Double-digit decline
Even before Musk's takeover, Twitter struggled to compete with larger social media giants like Facebook and Instagram, said Jastra Kranjec in a blog post.
However, “these challenges have intensified since the acquisition. Content moderation changes, shifts in platform direction, and Musk's controversial leadership have driven away both users and advertisers.” Recent data from Sensor Tower indicates that Twitter's usage in its largest market, the United States, has declined by over 20 percent since Musk rebranded the platform to X, with global numbers reflecting a similar trend. Alongside user losses, X has experienced a sharp drop in engagement rates among its existing user base. Metricool's 2024 Social Media Networks Study reveals that likes, mentions, and reposts on X have all suffered double-digit declines this year. On average, posts on X garnered 31.46 likes in 2024, a 16 percent decrease from the previous year. Reposts have seen an even steeper decline, dropping by 23 percent year over year to an average of 8.47 per post. Mentions have taken the hardest hit, plummeting by 61 percent to an average of just 1.56 per post. Conversely, impressions and replies on X posts have shown growth. Posts on X generated an average of 2,121 impressions in 2024, a 98 percent increase from 2023, while the average number of replies per post more than doubled to 3.4.
Posts plunge by 38 percen
In addition to declining engagement, X users are posting less frequently than before. Metricool data shows that the average account posted 3.55 times per week in 2024, a 38 percent drop from the 5.73 times reported in 2023. The ongoing user exodus and declining engagement, Kranjec posted “indicate that X's prominence in the social media landscape has further diminished in 2024. Coupled with a decrease in advertising revenue, intensified competition from platforms like Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky, and other alternatives, as well as technical glitches and platform instability, it is clear that the challenges X has faced under Musk's leadership have only intensified over the past two years.”
Slow tablet sales
The global tablet market remains sluggish, reflecting broader challenges in the IT sector amid a significant decline in consumer spending. According to recent data, tablet shipments grew by a modest 3 percent year over year in the first half of 2024, reaching 65.2 million units.
However, this slight uptick still leaves shipments 20 percent below the peak levels of 2021, indicating a slow recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic-driven surge. The tablet market has struggled, with industry revenues falling by nearly $5 billion from 2021 to 2023, also posted by Kranjec on her blog. Major players like Apple, Samsung and Amazon have been impacted, though Apple continues to dominate, shipping 22.2 million iPads in H1 2024. Samsung followed with 13.6 million units, while Lenovo and Xiaomi shipped 4.6 million and 3.8 million units, respectively. Huawei was the only major vendor to see a decline in shipments, dropping by 2.7 million units year over year. “Despite the slight growth in shipments, market forecasts remain bleak, with global tablet sales revenue expected to decline by another 2.3 percent in 2024, following declines in the previous two years. The sales volume is also projected to stay well below 2021 levels, and it may take another four years for the market to fully recover,” Kranjec said.
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