New disclosures have revealed what looks to be a colossal drop in value for X, formerly Twitter, since Elon Musk bought the social media site - making the company worth significantly less than the $44 billion the SpaceX CEO paid for it.
Musk’s run as CEO of the social media platform has been controversial to say the least. Many have been sharply critical of new moderation policies which they say have brought in a wave of disinformation and even hate speech.
Some users have even jumped ship to rival platforms such as BlueSky, Threads or even fringe alternatives such as Truth Social.
Data from the Financial Times also shows that users are increasingly leaving the platform, as it demonstrates that X lost almost one-fifth of its daily active users in the US over the past 16 months.
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And all this looks to have had a devastating impact on the company's value.
While Twitter is no longer a public company on the stock market after Musk bought it back in 2022, there are ways to estimate how much the company is worth.
Investment company Fidelity recently revealed how much it thinks its shares in X are now worth, suggesting a shocking drop in value for the company since Musk took over.
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In October 2022 when Musk took over the social media site, Fidelity estimated its shares were worth $19.66 million. However, as of the end of August 2024, the value of that investment has plummeted to a mere $4.19 million.
Doing the math, this means that Fidelity, a known and respected asset manager, now values the entire X social media platform at just $9.4 billion. This equates to a staggering 78 percent drop since it was purchased by Musk.
Musk has done much to alienate advertisers from X, such as comments he made during the New York Times DealBook Summit last year, when he told advertisers to 'go f*** yourself'.
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Since then, Twitter/X has lost millions in advertising revenue, and Musk’s innovation of the ‘Blue Check’ subscription system has only partly managed to fill the gaping void.
Research from data firm Kantar indicated that 26 percent of advertisers were planning to cut spending on Twitter for the 2025 financial year.
Kantar director of global thought leadership Gonca Bubani explained to The Guardian: “Marketers are brand custodians and need to trust the platforms they use. X has changed so much in recent years and can be unpredictable from one day to the next.
"It is difficult to feel confident about your brand safety in that environment.”
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UNILAD has contacted Twitter for a comment.