X is unique in that demand for its app and revenue from its app are as guided by basic business rules as by politics. But something interesting happened in February that shows business is (still) business.
I've been following X's revenue as the first social media platform to attempt to monetize its users, and here's February's check-in.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, X saw $17M of net revenue, what Elon gets to keep after paying Apple and Google their fees, in February. That's an increase of nearly 17% month-over-month.
But, why now?
Easy answer: AI.
In February, xAI rolled out Grok 3, an update to its ChatGPT competitor that brought the two much closer together. The launch was highly popularized on the platform by the team and Elon which resulted in Grok's standalone app rising to the top of the App Store for several days.
But it wasn't just Grok's standalone app.
Grok 3 was initially only available to X Premium Plus users, the most expensive subscription tier of the platform. Grok's standalone app later added an in-app purchase that doesn't require going through X, but I suspect the majority of paying users are subscribed via X.
Politics aside, X's revenue rose as a result of a new feature, something I expect to see more of this year. And not just from X.
I expect revenue to continue to grow as Grok continues to compete with ChatGPT, but also thanks to steep subscription increases from X, in some cases nearly doubling the price, which are rolling out now.
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