Twitter said user growth was “accelerating” to “historic highs” in Elon Musk’s first week at the helm, as he tried to reassure advertisers after growing numbers suspended spending on the social media platform since its takeover.
In an email sent to select advertisers on Monday, seen by the Financial Times, Twitter said growth in its monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) — a local metric that counts the number of logged-in users to whom the platform shows advertising – hit all-time highs” last week, rising to 20% from 15% in the second quarter.
“Twitter’s biggest market, the United States, is growing even faster,” the email said. Musk closed the deal to buy the platform for $44 billion on Oct. 27.
Since the end of the second quarter on June 30, the company has added more than 15 million mDAUs “crossing the quarter-billion mark,” the email said. Twitter brought in 237.8 million mDAUs, up nearly 17% year on year, in the second quarter, its bottom line as a public company.
On Monday, Musk wrote on the platform, “Twitter usage is at an all time high lol. Just hope the servers don’t melt!
It comes as Musk seeks to refute concerns that users may have fled the platform after it was taken over, despite promises from several high-profile celebrities to move elsewhere and an increase in users on the Internet. Mastodon Twitter niche alternative.
Musk faces a battle to persuade major brands such as General Motors, Mondelez, Carlsberg, United Airlines, Volkswagen and General Mills to resume advertising, with Twitter relying on ads for the majority of its revenue.
The companies suspended marketing over fears Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” would weaken content moderation and remove permanent bans for violations.
Twitter also said in the email that brand advertisers will “now have an additional ‘official’ tag under their name when it relaunch of Twitter Blue this week. [Wednesday]”, according to Monday’s email.
It’s rolling out a new version of its Twitter Blue premium subscription service for $7.99, which will let users pay for “Blue Tick” verifications that are currently only available to businesses, politicians, celebrities and social media. journalists.
The Verge first reported Twitter user growth data. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk’s relationship with advertisers became increasingly strained during his first week at the helm of the company.
The billionaire, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, previously said he wouldn’t change Twitter’s content policies until he convened a new content moderation board with “very diverse views” , and held calls early last week to reassure advertisers that the platform wouldn’t. become a “hellscape free for all”.
On Friday, Musk claimed that Twitter “has seen a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we’ve done everything we can. we could to appease the activists”.
He posted a poll on Twitter asking whether advertisers should support free speech or “political correctness”, and threatened a “thermonuclear name and shame” from brands that had taken down advertising “if this continues”.
Many ad executives and brands were also confused by Musk’s decision to lay off half of the company’s employees, insiders said, which hit the trust and safety and ad sales teams. Others pointed to the resignation last week of Twitter chief customer officer Sarah Personette, who had been their primary point of contact at the company.
Customers are “suspicious [and] watchful,” said an ad agency executive, adding that many others are quietly stopping.
“Threats don’t endear you to advertisers,” another ad executive said.
Additional reporting by Claire Bushey in Chicago
#Twitter #user #growth #accelerated #Elon #Musk