Elon Musk’s social media platform X suffered a 58% income collapse in its U.Okay. operations throughout 2024, in response to monetary disclosures newly filed with Firms Home, marking one other brutal 12 months for the corporate previously referred to as Twitter as advertisers proceed to flee amid considerations in regards to the model and its billionaire proprietor.
Since Musk acquired X in 2022 and took the corporate non-public, monetary disclosures from the corporate have been few and much between. The 2024 monetary paperwork from the U.Okay. are the latest perception into the social media firm’s monetary efficiency.
X’s U.Okay. arm reported income of simply $39.8 million for the 12 months ending Dec. 31, 2024, down from $95.2 million in 2023. The stark decline represents the continuation of a catastrophic promoting exodus that started when Musk acquired the platform in October 2022. Income from U.Okay. operations had already plummeted 66% in 2023 from $282.9 million the earlier 12 months.
“The significant decrease in the performance of the company is a result of the decline of advertising revenue primarily driven by a reduction in spend from large brand advertisers due to concerns about brand safety, reputation and/or content moderation,” the corporate acknowledged in its strategic report filed with U.Okay. regulators.
Office and tradition knowledgeable Bruce Daisley, who beforehand served as Twitter’s vp of Europe, the Center East, and Asia, and as Twitter U.Okay.’s managing director, advised Fortune that the U.Okay. market has traditionally served as a dependable proxy for the platform’s world well being, regardless of accounting for less than roughly 5.3% of its whole income. “It’s a mature economy, and it’s reflecting what’s happening in the rest of the world,” Daisley defined, pointing to the developed community of e-commerce distributors and the U.Okay. financial system’s diversified verticals.
The revelation of X U.Okay.’s points comes as Musk has adopted an unprecedented combative stance towards the very advertisers his platform relies upon upon for survival. In November 2023, throughout a profanity-laden tirade on the New York Instances DealBook Summit, Musk advised advertisers fleeing the platform to “go f–k yourself,” particularly calling out Disney CEO Bob Iger after the leisure large halted its promoting. Musk accused Iger of making an attempt to “blackmail” him with promoting cash.
That outburst adopted Musk’s endorsement of an anti-Semitic conspiracy concept on X, which he re-posted to his personal account. Main manufacturers together with Disney, Apple, IBM, Comcast, and Warner Bros. Discovery subsequently suspended their promoting on the platform. Musk has since apologized for his on-line remark, calling the put up the “worst and dumbest” factor he has revealed on his account. (Representatives for X didn’t reply to a request for remark.)
Quite than looking for reconciliation, Musk doubled down, submitting sweeping antitrust lawsuits towards advertisers. In August 2024, X sued the World Alliance for Accountable Media (GARM)—an promoting trade initiative centered on model security—together with member firms together with CVS Well being, Unilever, Mars, and Orsted, accusing them of illegally conspiring to boycott the platform and collectively withholding “billions of dollars in advertising revenue.” The lawsuit successfully shut down GARM, which ceased operations citing restricted assets to struggle the authorized battle. Unilever settled its go well with with X (the phrases weren’t disclosed).
Musk expanded the lawsuit in February 2025 to incorporate extra main manufacturers corresponding to Nestlé, Colgate-Palmolive, Lego, Shell, and Tyson Meals. “We tried peace for two years, now it is war,” Musk posted on X.
“I can’t remember an example in the history of marketing where someone from a platform has threatened to go to law and sue people who don’t spend money with him,” Daisley advised Fortune, describing the strategy as “astonishing.” He characterised Musk’s technique as “mafia-like,” noting that entrepreneurs he’s spoken with “just want nothing to do with the brand, the product, or the audience.”
The promoting disaster represents a surprising reversal for a platform that generated $4.5 billion in world advert income in 2022. That determine collapsed to $2.2 billion in 2023—a 46% decline—and is estimated to have fallen additional to roughly $2 billion in 2024. Had X maintained pre-acquisition development tendencies relative to the broader social media market, its advert income might be greater than double present ranges, in response to WARC Media evaluation.
By comparability, opponents thrived in the course of the 2024 monetary 12 months, with Instagram’s advert income rising 24.9%, Snapchat up 13.8%, and Pinterest growing 18.1%.
Daisley attributes the continuing decline not simply to model security considerations—the place advertisers concern their advertisements showing alongside neo-Nazi content material or AI-generated pornography—however to Musk’s broader political provocations. “He’s funded far-right political parties across Europe. He’s been accused of election interference by the president of France,” Daisley famous, including that Musk “insults the leaders of other Western European allies daily.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.Okay. Prime Minister Keir Starmer have each criticized Musk’s help for far-right actions and interference in European politics.
Regardless of the grim trajectory, Daisley believes the platform isn’t “beyond salvation” if management adjustments course. “It still remains a remarkably influential platform. It hasn’t yet been fully substituted,” he stated. Nevertheless, he sees little indication of reform: “It’s hard to see any revival of their revenues without change.”
