According to analysts at Emarketer, from when Musk acquired X in 2022 until 2025, they expect X to have lost 7 million monthly active users in the U.S.
The declining user base pales in comparison to the decline of X’s brand and value. According to a recent report from Brand Finance, X’s brand is now worth 673 million. The brand was valued at $5.7 billion before Musk’s takeover in 2022. When it comes to revenue, X’s revenue fell by 40 percent when compared to the prior year based on internal company data from June 2024.
X as a brand was worth $0 in 2022.
Twitter as a brand was worth $5.7 billion in 2022.
Elon took Twitter to the back of the shed and Old Yeller’d it.
“Brand” means the value attached to the name, not the value of the company as a whole. With that being said, yes, Elon massively and hilariously overpaid for Twitter (around 50%-100% over the odds IIRC). He offered an absolutely insane price per share as a stunt to get them to change their hate speech policies, and the Twitter shareholders said “Deal” and took his money. That’s why he sued them to try to get out of going through with the deal; he never actually meant to buy the company in the first place, he just made a really, really stupid attempt at a power move and it blew up in his face.
Or if you prefer to be a lot more cynical, he Old Yeller’d it, but he burned it’s equity to get himself elected Co-President, and is worth like a hundred billion dollars more than he was before he did that.
So really, it was a Very Wise and bigly Smart business move.
