May was a strange month for X. On the one hand, revenue didn't grow from April - quite the opposite. On the other, it saw the return of its chief poster from his political journey.
But when looking at revenue beyond just a few months, an interesting trend emerges:
According to our App Intelligence, X ended May with $16.7M of net revenue (after fees) down from $18.4M in April. But when you compare May's haul to May of 2024 it's very different. Year-over-year revenue is actually up 120%!
X really transformed its revenue generation capabilities in 2024. Price increases were somewhat responsible for this increase but I don't think that's really the core of it. Instead, it was the platform's ability to surface interesting posts.
And as the year progressed, that diminished, at least in my stream. I don't think I'm the only one because Elon's return from DC also brought on an algorithm update, suggesting I'm not the only one who noticed.
By the way, I also considered the decrease in revenue to be the result of Bluesky taking off, but looking at the downloads I'm fairly certain that isn't the case. Bluesky's downloads have dropped from 2.7M in January to 370K in May, according to our estimates. That's a loss of more than 86%.
That may not have an immediate impact, but more relevant posts + Elon's fairly non-political return to the platform could drive more revenue as X cements itself as the go-to news source around the world.
December saw a curious split: downloads dropped 2% while revenue sat at $1.3B. ChatGPT and TikTok dominated both charts as the mobile industry enters a new maturity phase.
Wall Street bet $2 billion on Polymarket, and downloads surged 1,172% in December. The prediction market banned in 2022 is now where Wall Street looks for signals.