X (formerly Twitter) has been acquired by Musk for more than a year, but its revenue situation has not improved since then, but has deteriorated.。

According to people familiar with the matter, X's advertising revenue will reach about $2.5 billion in 2023, a sharp decline from previous years.。In the first three quarters of this year, X's advertising revenue was just over $600 million, and the fourth quarter is expected to perform similarly, according to people familiar with the matter.。By comparison, X's revenue in 2022 was more than $1 billion per quarter.。

X's revenue includes, in addition to advertising, subscriptions and data licensing transactions.。But advertising is still the main source of X's revenue.。It is reported that at present, advertising sales account for about 70% to 75% of X's total revenue.。This means that X's total revenue in 2023 will be approximately $3.4 billion.。

According to people familiar with the matter, X executives initially aimed to reach $3 billion in advertising and subscription revenue by 2023, but it's going to be difficult to achieve that goal for now。Although the holiday season has not yet ended and the values are still in flux, the general trend is largely determined。

X has historically relied on advertising for most of its revenue, but the business has been in decline since Musk took over.。Previously, Musk also personally confirmed the sharp decline in advertising business.。In March, he had revealed ad revenue was down about 50%, and he also said the company was turning things around by making ads more relevant。He believes that Twitter has an opportunity to break even in cash flow in the second quarter。Now it seems that Musk is still too optimistic。

In July, Musk posted on X that Twitter's ad revenue was only half of what it used to be.。And because of the shrinking advertising business and the heavy debt burden, X's cash flow remains negative。

As of August this year, X's advertising revenue in the U.S. has been in a year-on-year decline, according to advertising analytics firm Guideline。

The decline in the data, so pronounced, highlights advertisers' distrust of X under Musk。

But Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, countered: "This is an incomplete understanding of our entire business because the sources relied on did not provide accurate and comprehensive details.。After Musk acquired Company X in October 2022, the company stopped reporting public financial data.。Benarroch describes X as a growing new global business with multiple revenue streams。"We're no longer Twitter and we're no longer measuring ourselves against the old Twitter metrics - both in terms of revenue and user metrics."。"

Not only is the advertising business down, but the company's other businesses are not as good as they used to be.。It is estimated that X's subscription business earns less than 1 per year..$200 million。In 2021, Twitter at the time created 5 through a data licensing deal..$7.2 billion in revenue。

When Musk took over X in 2022, the company was not yet profitable.。But the company reported total revenue of more than $5 billion in 2021, and the revenue situation is much better than it is now.。In early 2021, company executives led by then-CEO Jack Dorsey set a public goal of $7.5 billion in revenue by the end of 2023.。

After Musk took over, he made drastic cost-cutting moves at the company。For a company that continues to lose money, there is nothing wrong with reducing costs and increasing efficiency, except that Musk's dramatic "transformation" of X has left more and more advertisers without the stability of long-term cooperation.。Coupled with Musk's control of X far more than before, its "morning and evening" behavior also let advertisers stay away.。

Musk sits on X with 1.6.5 billion fans, but this did not make him "cautious," still "go my own way," often issued controversial remarks。The most recent major controversy was its support for anti-Semitic posts.。

In November, Musk expressed support for anti-Semitic posts on his account, leading several major advertisers, including Apple and Disney, to announce a moratorium on spending on X.。Later, although Musk apologized for the related post, he did not give the advertiser who threatened to quit "a good face."。At an event meeting, he spoke directly and boldly to advertisers in an interview, telling advertisers who boycotted X to "fuck off" and saying that withdrawing their money amounted to extortion。

In order to get rid of its dependence on major brand advertisers, X has been trying to attract more small and medium-sized enterprises to join the platform.。

According to a person familiar with the matter, Musk has previously told employees and investors that he wants subscription revenue to account for half of the company's total business, but the service has just over 1 million paid subscribers, far from meeting Musk's expectations.。

The dilemma X faces today is not small。Advertisers value traffic the most, but the current X traffic has been split up by other competitors。It is estimated that X currently has about 200 million daily active users, while Threads, an "X-like product" just launched this year, has about 1.500 million users。The growth of Threads has made Zuckerberg ambitious: "There should be a public conversation app with more than a billion people.。"Twitter (now X) had a chance to do it, but didn't take the chance.。I hope we can do it。"