Hello, everyone! š For nearly two years, Iāve been actively following the developments on Twitter, now known as āX.ā I vividly remember the moment when Elon Musk acquired Twitter, and back then, I harbored hopes for improvements and progress on this social media platform. Post-acquisition, I heard various criticisms directed at Twitter. I considered it natural, attributing it to the need for company reorganization, which, of course, takes time. So, I decided to wait and observe Twitter a year later. Now that a year has passed, I embarked on a little investigation to gauge how Twitter, or rather, X, has become more popular, user-friendly, truthful, and secure.
In this article, Iāll delve into the question of popularity. Conducting my own research, I present this article based on the gathered information. Popularity can be assessed in various ways, but I believe the best indicator is the number of active users.
As of October 2023, Twitter boasted 528.3 million monthly active users (mDAU). This means approximately 528.3 million people actively used Twitter at least once a month to share updates, follow news, and engage with others. Over the past year, this number remained relatively stable, with a slight dip from 533.0 million in October 2022. From these statistics, it appears that X hasnāt gained more popularity in the past year. However, as an X user, I remember a recent viral post claiming that X surpassed Facebook and Instagram.
Elon, endorsing the post with a retweet, seemingly supports this claim. But what does the tweet say? It addresses the concept of āOrganic Search Resultsā on Google. Googleās organic search results are regular listings you see when searching for something. They are not advertisements; instead, they rank based on how well they match your query and the reliability and relevance of websites. How often do you, as Google users, come across Twitter links during your Google searches? Personally, Iāve seen very few of such links š!
Elon aimed to show that X is superior to Instagram and Facebook in Googleās organic search results. Honestly, I found this claim peculiar, but at the same time, I understood that the information presented was likely accurate. All that remained was to find more information and understand why this post was so unusual. Hereās what I discovered on Google:
According to Semrushās report, in November 2023, Twitter received around 650.9 million visits from Google searches in the USA (compared to 520.7 million for Facebook and 496.5 million for Instagram). This indicates that a significant portion of Twitterās user base discovers content through organic search rather than direct or paid traffic.
In 2022, Twitterās monthly traffic in the USA was 481 million visits, Facebook had 298 million, and Instagram had 360 million. In summary, X seems to lead in this aspect in the šŗšø. The conclusion is straightforward ā X is more popular than Facebook and Instagram! However, this turned out to be a misconception, as my information-seeking journey revealed.
When I started digging deeper, I stumbled upon entirely different figures. It perplexed me for a moment, but I quickly realized that Elonās retweet didnāt specify that these statistics only pertained to activities in the USA. What do the global figures say?!
According to Similarweb, Twitterās global organic search traffic in 2023 was estimated at 2.99 billion visits per month. And what about the competitors? š§ According to Semrush, Facebookās global organic search traffic in 2023 was estimated at 57.6 billion visits per month. According to Similarweb, Instagramās global organic search traffic in 2023 was estimated at 4.84 billion visits per month. Global data indicates that X significantly lags behind its competitors. I must note that I found other data during my search, and some varied significantly from what I presented to you, but X always had less than Facebook š¤£. In one version, X and Instagram had equal figures! In general, X has an edge in the USA, but on a global scale, it is considerably smaller than Facebook. And letās not forget, these are all based on Organic Search results on Google!
Now, letās compare platforms based on the number of active users. I believe the number of active users paints a more realistic picture.
As of October 2023, Twitter had 528.3 million monetizable monthly active users (mDAU). This means around 528.3 million people actively used Twitter at least once a month to share updates, follow news, and engage with others. Over the past year, this number remained relatively stable, with a slight decrease from 533.0 million in October 2022. Perhaps the decline is related to the fight against bots; we all remember that during the Twitter acquisition, they mentioned a minimum of 10% bots on the platform.
And what about Metaās competitors? As of October 2023, Facebook had 2.989 billion active users per month, meaning around 3 billion people actively used Facebook at least once a month. Instagram had 2.06 billion active users per month.
As we can see, the figures for the number of active users are undeniably challenging for X. Currently, Metaās products are significantly larger than Elonās ā.
Time to draw conclusions from my investigation š¬:
- The tweet I examined carries truthful information. As mentioned earlier, this information has been confirmed, and the figures align.
- The fact that the information pertains only to the USA is omitted. Perhaps clear to U.S. residents, but not necessarily evident to residents of other countries.
- It leans towards a more promotional nature. Why is it considered promotional? š¤£ Above š, I provided figures for 2022, and similarly, X is a leader in organic search in the USA. This leads to the notion that claiming to be the biggest could have been done in 2022 as well š¤£. In other criteria, X falls short of Metaās products. I get the impression that Elon wanted to find an area where X is larger than Facebook š.
- Without careful scrutiny, it can be misleading. From a marketing perspective, the tweet implies that X is bigger than Facebook, but in reality, itās a psychological trick or meme š. The main message is X is greater than Facebook, but alas, itās a psychological illusion or a meme.
In the upcoming articles, I will delve into other aspects and results after a year of Muskās and the teamās work.
Thanks for reading!
