X (formerly Twitter) traffic plummeted. On all fronts. This is illustrated by the latest report from Similarweb, a company that owns software for analyzing website traffic. According to data released by the company, X traffic has dropped 14% over the past year globally.
A drop that appears even more marked if you look only at the traffic generated by iOS and Android apps which combined lost 17.8% in the United States alone (where the research specifies that this type of analysis can be conducted). While on an overall level the decline is also marked in Great Britain (-11.6%), France (-13.4%), Germany (-17.9%) and Australia (-17.5%).
X traffic drops. Musk’s profile increases by 96%
The period examined by the research is September 2023, compared to September last year. But in the methodological note it is specified that this is not a coincidence, because the same decreasing trend is also found in other periods. Comparing the first nine months of 2023 to the same period in 2022, Similarweb found that X’s website traffic was down 11.6% year-over-year in the U.S. and 7% globally. Mobile app usage in the United States also decreased by 12.8% over the same period.
In a situation that shouldn’t be too comforting for the platform, there is a fact that goes against the trend. The personal profile of Elon Musk, who bought Twitter (later transformed into X) for 44 billion a year ago, saw followers and traffic generated increase by 96%. Similarweb succeeds in this type of analysis, it is specified, thanks to a mix of its own algorithms and tools.
The largest decline in growth of all social networks
Generally its estimates are quite precise and used in the internet world to monitor the trends of sites and advertisements. But on the mobile side it has a notable brake, that of iOS devices, subject to heavier restrictions by Apple on the privacy of its users. For X (and other social networks) as far as mobile is concerned, Android is the most relevant. And on Android, Similarweb notes that usage of the X mobile app worldwide decreased by 14.8% on Android.
However, X seems to be part of a larger phenomenon. More extensive. All social networks (except TikTok) have seen declines over the past year. Some are downright negative: Facebook lost 10% of its traffic. Others grow less: Instagram by 0.3%, as well as Whatsapp, Reddit and Linkedin with growth all below 1%. TikTok is up 20%.
X less relevant to the media. But Twitter has always been less so
Similarweb – an Israeli web traffic analysis company – dedicates part of its analyzes to the importance of X for the world of information. Here too the data is negative. Or rather, decreasing. The company notes that three years ago The New York Times received 3-4% of its traffic from Twitter, but that has now dropped to less than 1%. The result of a precise strategy by Musk. Who first started a personal war against all the media, then decided to prevent the publication of newspaper headlines (now by sharing a link only a photo appears).
It must be said, however, that the decline is small. Already Twitter has never been a traffic tool for news sites. It was a platform where presence itself mattered more, the sharing of events in real time. A report from Nieman confirmed that media outlets leaving X have no, or at least negligible, impact on their traffic.
Musk boasts 500 million users. But the data is not public
Musk bought Twitter a year ago. First with a hostile takeover bid: 44 billion the offer. Then as compensation for an impulsive action, which he regretted, asking for a discount on the price offered. Offer rejected. And the rest is recent history. Now as sole owner he faces praise and criticism for his management. However, although discussed, it did not pave the way for others.
None of Twitter’s direct competitors (now X) appear to have gained from its difficult times. When Musk bought it, the company boasted 350 million unique users per month. Today it is no longer forced to publish its data because it is no longer listed. But in a recent statement to TechCrunch Musk said that unique users are around 500 million. Data contradicts those of Similarweb. Which, however, have not been contested at the moment.