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Why Are Millions of Businesses Bailing on Twitter (X)?

Prior to taking the helm at Twitter following a mind-blowing $44 billion buyout, Elon Musk promised to bring the changes. And whether for better or worse (the latter seeming to be the consensus), he delivered on his word.

Increasingly, Twitter (now X) has become a platform renowned more for its controversial, divisive and downright offensive content than its social media roots.  The kind of app you’re often scared to launch on your smartphone in a public place, worried about what might pop up in your feed and be seen by all in the vicinity.

In terms of everyday access and engagement, Musk continues to boast that X has never been more successful.  On the financial side of things, the numbers are painting an entirely different story.

Not only has the all-round value of Twitter plummeted since Musk purchased it, but trust levels among the platform's key financers (i.e. marketers and advertisers) have hit an all-time low.

Beating a Hasty Retreat

The results of a recent study conducted by Kantar make for grim reading.  Next year, record numbers of advertisers will be significantly stepping down their investment in X marketing.  In total, a whopping 26% of those who currently pay for advertising on X will be decreasing their spend next year.

To put it into perspective, this is the single largest annual investment stepdown for any major global advertising platform ever recorded.

Perhaps worse still, just 4% of advertisers are confident that X continues to deliver the "brand safety" they need to confidently use its services. In this context, we're talking the assurance that the ads you pay to display on X won't pop up next to offensive, extreme or outright unacceptable content.

All three of which the platform has become increasingly saturated with as of late.

By comparison, the same Kantar study found that almost 40% of advertisers have no such safety concerns where Google Ads is concerned.

An Escalating Issue

Far from something of a blip (or a total non-issue as Musk would have the world believe), it’s an issue that’s being accelerating over several years.  Such as being the change in the X environment and ecosystem that the shift seems to not only be permanent, but gravitating to even more extreme changes as time passes.

For many major brands and businesses, their decision to withdraw from X is linked directly with a lack of content moderation, and concerns regarding Musk’s increasingly biased approach to how the platform is run.

Interestingly, X has released a statement in the meantime claiming that the social network “now offers stronger brand safety, performance, and analytics capabilities than ever before while seeing all-time-high usage levels.”

A claim that contrasts starkly with the action being taken by many thousands of major brands, having decided that Twitter’s billion-strong user-base simply doesn’t compensate for the risks involved in paid X advertising.