In the second quarter of 2022, X/Twitter's revenue amounted to over 1.17 billion U.S. dollars. The platform's majority of the social network’s revenues are generated via advertising, followed by data licensing and other revenues.

X/Twitter company information X/Twitter ranks among the biggest social networks worldwide. As of the second quarter of 2021, the company reported 206 million monetizable daily active users worldwide. In 2020, Twitter’s annual revenue came to 3.72 billion U.S. dollars. However, the company has only been able to report a positive net income in 2018 and 2019, revealing a struggle to monetize users.

X/Twitter marketing and advertising Social media advertising spending in the United States is constantly growing. In 2019, the social media ad spend per U.S. internet user amounted to 129.1 U.S. dollars and this figure is projected to sharply increase to over 174 U.S. dollars by 2024. Along with Instagram, X/Twitter is a popular marketing channel and some brands and companies have made a name for themselves for being entertaining on Twitter.

In 2021, Twitter generated more than 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in advertising service revenues, up from 3.2 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year. Additionally, the micro-blogging platform produced around 571 million U.S. dollars in data licensing revenue, up from 508 million U.S. dollars in 2020.

In the last reported quarter, social network X/Twitter had a net loss of 270 million U.S. dollars, down from a net income of 513 million U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2022.In 2020, the decline in revenue was due to an advertising slump caused by the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic, which led the company to recognize a deferred tax asset valuation allowance of 1.1 billion U.S. and a non-cash income tax expense based primarily on cumulative taxable losses driven primarily by COVID-19.

Twitter's ad business shrank both in 2023 and 2024, with global ad revenues falling to two billion dollars, according to the source's estimates. After the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk on October 27, 2022, the platform saw an exodus of users. December 2022 projections saw more than 30 million users leaving the platform by the end of 2024.

Social network X/Twitter is particularly popular in the United States, and as of April 2024, the microblogging service had an audience reach of 106.23 million users in the country. Japan and the India were ranked second and third with more than 69 million and 25 million users respectively. Global Twitter usage As of the second quarter of 2021, X/Twitter had 206 million monetizable daily active users worldwide. The most-followed Twitter accounts include figures such as Elon Musk, Justin Bieber and former U.S. president Barack Obama. X/Twitter and politics X/Twitter has become an increasingly relevant tool in domestic and international politics. The platform has become a way to promote policies and interact with citizens and other officials, and most world leaders and foreign ministries have an official Twitter account. Former U.S. president Donald Trump used to be a prolific Twitter user before the platform permanently suspended his account in January 2021. During an August 2018 survey, 61 percent of respondents stated that Trump's use of Twitter as President of the United States was inappropriate.

X/Twitter has experienced a turbulent year since Elon Musk came close to purchasing the company, which has in turn raised concerns about the number of bots on the platform. Nevertheless, user numbers have continued to rise. In the last reported quarter, the number of global monetizable daily active users (mDAU) on X/Twitter amounted to 237.8 million users, up from 229 million mDAU in the previous quarter.

Overall, this is an increase in mDAU of over 15 percent when compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In addition, monetizable daily active users in the United States also increased, and throughout June and July 2022, X Premium rolled out an increase in the cost of its membership for new subscribers.

Who is using X/Twitter?

As of the beginning of 2022, men made up 56.4 percent of all X/Twitter users worldwide. Users between the ages of 25 and 34, who accounted for 38.5 percent of X/Twitter's global audience, made up the largest audience share. Moreover, one-fifth of users worldwide were between the ages of 35 and 49, indicating that the platform is not so popular amonst younger audiences. In 2021, Generation Z X/Twitter users in the United States spent more time on other major social networks, such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram than they did on Twitter.

X/Twitter and advertising

In 2021, X/Twitter’s annual revenue increased steeply, generating more than five billion U.S. dollars in total, with the vast majority of revenue coming from advertising. Overall, almost a quarter of global marketers said they planned to increase their spending on X/Twitter in 2022, whilst the majority said they did not plan to change their expenditure on the platform. In recent years, X/Twitter almost tripled its advertising expenditure, boosting ad spending from 56 million U.S. dollars in 2020 to over 167 million U.S. dollars in 2021.

How many people use X/Twitter?

As of the first quarter of 2019, X/Twitter averaged 330 million monthly active users, a decline from its all-time high of 336 MAU in the first quarter of 2018. As of the first quarter of 2019, the company switched its user reporting metric to monetizable daily active users (mDAU).

X/Twitter

X/Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service, enabling registered users to read and post short messages called tweets. X/Twitter messages are limited to 280 characters and users are also able to upload photos or short videos. Tweets are posted to a publicly available profile or can be sent as direct messages to other users.

Part of the social platform’s appeal is the ability of users to follow any other user with a public profile, enabling users to interact with celebrities who regularly post on the social media site. Currently, the most-followed person on Twitter is singer Katy Perry with more than 107 million followers. Twitter has also become an important communications channel for governments and heads of state – U.S. President Donald Trump was the most-followed world leader on Twitter, followed by Pope Francis and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Despite the widespread usage among the rich and famous, the decline in active users has not been impressing investors as the platform is largely reliant on delivering advertising to users in order to generate revenues. Twitter’s company revenue in 2018 amounted to three billion U.S. dollars, up from 2.44 billion in the preceding fiscal year. Twitter was only recently able to report a positive annual result for the first time, when the company generated 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in net income in 2018.

In 2022, X (formerly Twitter) generated 4.73 billion U.S. dollars in advertising revenue. This figure is expected to drop to 2.7 billion U.S. dollars by 2027. The social platform is responsible for roughly one percent of the global ad revenue.

Social network platform in transition

Established in 2006, California-based platform X (formerly known as Twitter) ranked among the most popular social networks worldwide by number of monthly users as of late 2023. The company has undergone a profound transformation after Elon Musk's acquisition in October 2022. After the billionaire bought the platform, advertisers and marketers have closely observed every change regarding its features and policies. Due to many contradictory developments at Twitter, industry professionals have become increasingly more cautious with their investments. A prominent example was IPG - one of the world's top five advertisers - advising its customers to temporarily abstain from putting money into the platform. Another big advertiser who has also ceased ad investment in Walmart.

Social media powerhouse: Facebook

In the meantime, nearly half of the responding marketing professionals named Facebook the most important social media platform for their business. The social network giant's revenue amounted to 114 billion dollars in 2022. Although the figure was roughly 60 percent of Google's ad revenue, Meta stood further ahead of X in terms of money earned through selling ad spaces.

With roughly three billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2023, Facebook is the most used online social network worldwide. The platform surpassed two billion active users in the second quarter of 2017, taking just over 13 years to reach this milestone. In comparison, Meta-owned Instagram took 11.2 years, and Google’s YouTube took just over 14 years to achieve this landmark. As of January 2022, Facebook’s leading audience base was in India, with almost 330 million users whilst the United States ranked second with an approximate total of 179 million users. The platform also finds remarkable popularity in Indonesia and Brazil. Social Media usage in the United States In January 2021, Facebook was the platform on which users in the United States spent the most time per day. The average time spent on Facebook was 33 minutes, followed by TikTok with 32 minutes and Twitter with 31 daily minutes. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, all major social media platforms saw an increase in daily usage, which then either plateaued or decreased in 2021. At the end of 2021, over a quarter of all Facebook users in the United States belonged to the 25 to 34 year age group and 18.2 percent of users were in the 35 to 44 year age group. In general, Facebook users were more likely to be female. Meta Platforms Meta is Facebook’s recently renamed parent company and had a grand total of 3.59 billion core product users by the final quarter of 2021. Other Meta products include Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus – Meta’s virtual reality subsidiary which produces VR headsets. In 2021, Meta's revenue amounted to 117 billion US dollars, up from around 86 billion U.S. dollars in the previous financial year.

Ethical cosmetics and beauty company Lush generated the largest portion of its revenue from its operations in the United Kingdom in 2023. This was followed by the brand’s retail activities in the United States, Canada, and Japan, where the number of Lush shops is almost as high as retail UK stores. Young shopper profile Lush manufactures and sells hand-made beauty, hair and skincare products. The brand is known for its policy of animal-free product testing. In the UK, while Lush’s shopper profile covers a wide range of demographics, young people still make up a large majority of Lush customers. Online without social In 2019, Lush made the surprising announcement that it was bringing its social media presence to an end. The company closed its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, yet revenue from online continued to soar, delivering increasing turnover from digital sales since 2016.