Elon Musk‘s social media platform X could possibly lose up to $75 million USD in ad revenue earnings this year.
According to Engadget, the multi-million dollar loss stems from the lack of advertisers on the platform formerly known as Twitter. Internal documents viewed by The New York Times reveal that more than 100 advertisers, ranging from brands to political candidates, have stopped running ads on X, while “dozens more” are contemplating on doing the same thing.
The documents also allegedly tracks the possible aftereffects of X’s lack of advertisers, including the ones that pulled their ads after Musk’s tweet agreeing with a conspiracy theory many deemed to be antisemitic. Nonprofit and media watchdog Media Matters then shared a report noting that ads on X were placed next to the platform’s antisemitic content, leading to an ongoing lawsuit between the two companies.
Companies like Apple, IBM and Disney were one of the very first brands to remove their ads on X, while Lionsgate publicly announced that it paused its ads on the platform due to Musk’s tweet. The Times added that major companies have halted campaigns worth millions of dollars, including Airbnb’s $1 million USD campaign, Netflix’s $3 million USD and a possible $4 million USD from Microsoft’s subsidiaries.
A rep for X shut down the report and claimed that the numbers were now either outdated or “represented an internal exercise to evaluate total risk.” They also added that the possible ad revenue loss is currently at around $11 million USD only, fluctuating due to the return of advertisers or increased ad spending.
The tweet in focus saw Musk agree to a statement from another user that suggested “western Jewish populations” were “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.” The CEO retweeted the statement and added, “you have said the actual truth.”
