Ever since it was bought by billionaire Elon Musk for $44bn last October, X, formerly Twitter, has been losing advertising revenue. After introducing changes to its content moderation rules, which turned away many users and advertisers, the platform has struggled to regain monthly traffic volume and income from social media ads.
According to data presented by OnlyAccounts.io, Twitter`s ad revenue is expected to drop by 30% or $1.3bn in 2023.
The Only Social Media Platform with an Ad Revenue Drop
Twitter was experiencing operational challenges even before its acquisition by Elon Musk. However, ever since taking over the company, the billionaire has been making changes to the social network that have cut down its traffic and driven away advertisers. As a result, Twitter is on track to end 2023 as the only social media platform among the top seven with an ad revenue drop.
According to a Statista survey, Twitter`s ad revenue is expected to drop 30% year-over-year, falling from $4.7bn in 2022 to $3.3bn in 2023. All other social media giants will see their ad revenue increase this year, with TikTok as the fastest-growing social media platform among the seven market leaders.
Statista expects the video-sharing platform to grow its ad revenue by a massive 55% year-over-year, rising from $11.6bn to over $18bn. Interestingly, Pinterest is expected to see the second-largest increase of 17%, with its ad revenue growing from $2.8bn in 2022 to $3.3bn in 2023. Snapchat and LinkedIn closely follow, with a 16% and 15% year-over-year increase.
Statista data also show that Facebook will see the smallest ad revenue growth of 5%. Last year, the social media giant grossed $113.6bn from ads on its platform. This figure is forecasted to increase to $118.9bn in 2023.
Twitter`s Ad Revenue to Drop by Further 20% by 2027
The combination of divisive leadership, questionable politics from the person who runs the company, and plenty of competition on the market will continue cutting down Twitter`s ad revenue in the following years.
Statista expects the platform to gross $3.1bn in ad revenue in 2024, 6% less than this year. By 2027, this figure is set to drop by another 12% to $2.7bn. That means the company will lose roughly 42% of its ad revenue in five years.
