A new report from the Financial Times says At the New York Times DealBook Summit earlier this week. But while the Financial Times paints a picture of a bright future for X, where catering to SMEs has always been the goal, Musk himself warned just days ago that the loss of major advertisers would mean the end of X.
Speaking at the event, Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin: “What this ad boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company,” he said with a slight nod to the audience. “What the whole world will know is that these advertisers killed the company, and we will document that in great detail.”
This is a different story than the one that emerged today, with a company representative telling the Financial Times that “SMEs are a very important driver that we have underestimated for a long time” and that “ [was] “It’s always part of the plan – and now we’ll go even further.”
Of course, that could just be a spin. In fact, X has no other choice but to continue advertising opportunities for SMEs, since many of the big brands that left X do not plan to return. According to a report by L New York timesSix marketing agencies the newspaper spoke to said they would not resume advertising on X, and another said they had advised advertisers to stop publishing on the platform as well. Some have even said that the pause on ads on X will likely become permanent. The Times also noted that about 200 advertisers halted spending on the platform after Musk endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy with one of his reckless responses to another X user. Brands including Apple, Disney, Comcast, IBM, Lionsgate and Warner Bros. and Paramount and others, including now, Walmarta former partner of Twitter in e-commerce initiatives, has stopped advertising on the platform.
Although Musk attempted to clear up confusion over his statements in subsequent posts, and again during his interview with DealBook, it’s fair to say the damage has been done — and this time, it may be permanent.
However, Sorkin responded to Musk’s claims that the world will see the end of X as the end of the world Advertisers‘ flaw. He pressed Musk to reconsider that sentiment, noting that advertisers would likely say Musk’s actions were to blame because he said “inappropriate things” on the platform, which made advertisers feel uncomfortable.
“Tell her to the ground,” Musk replied. “Let’s see how Earth responds to that. We’ll both make our case and we’ll see what the outcome is.”
But there’s still a question about whether Musk will really let X fail, even if ad revenue declines to the point that X is no longer sustainable as a business on its own. As the world chameleonSorkin noted that Musk has “tremendous” resources to keep the company afloat if he chooses to do so.
Therefore, Musk’s response indicated that he might allow X to die.
“I mean, if a company fails because of advertisers’ boycott, it will fail because of advertisers’ boycott. This is what will bankrupt the company – as everyone on Earth will know… and then it will disappear. “It will disappear because of advertisers’ boycott,” he said.
When asked again about brand safety issues, he added: “Tell the judge. The judge is the public.”
In other words, Musk was trying to flip the script and pressure advertisers to return to “X” or risk being boycotted.
But as the Financial Times reported, X is already working on new sources of ad revenue, citing a previous relationship with marketing firm JumpCrew, which will outsource some ad sales, targeting small and medium-sized businesses. The company told the Financial Times that this push to reach SMEs will be accelerated. As the report indicated, As others did, reported that X CEO Linda Yaccarino had been “bombarded with calls” urging her to resign to protect her reputation. But so far, Yaccarino has been supportive of Musk after his comments, saying: Including via internal emailas reported by CNBC, noted, “Our principles have no price, and will never be compromised — ever. No matter how hard they try, we will not be distracted by fringe critics who don’t understand our mission.