X CEO Linda Yaccarino says the social media giant has the wind at its back again.
Yaccarino told Yahoo Finance at the Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity (video above) that the platform is going through a “historic evolution” and has “96% of our advertisers coming back and a tidal wave of new advertisers coming back.”
Her exuberance comes as the Wall Street Journal recently reported that X has threatened lawsuits against ad buyers such as Verizon (VZ) and Ralph Lauren (RL) if they don’t spend more. The paper said at least half a dozen companies have struck ad deals after being pressured.
“There was no comment in the article [from us],” Yaccarino claimed. “There was also no named sources in the article. They had some random third parties comment on unnamed sources. So with the absence of both facts and named sources, and then the absence of the setup of the story, which was the House Judiciary Committee’s findings and evidence that addressed a real coming together to boycott the platform.”
Per WSJ, a spokesperson for X declined to comment for the story.
It’s been a wild ride since Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of X, formerly known as Twitter, in October 2022.
His tenure started with mass layoffs and increasing concerns about unmoderated hate speech. By January 2023, X had reportedly lost more than 50% of its ad revenue since Musk’s purchase as major brands shied away from the platform’s chaos.
Enter Long Island native Linda Yaccarino, who took over as CEO on June 5, 2023. The longtime media executive spent 12 years at NBCUniversal and was handpicked by Musk to bring in sales.
Her tenure has included dealing with controversial posts from Musk, his full-throated support of Donald Trump, blowback from his DOGE work, and the recent breakup between the president and the billionaire. Musk’s political endeavors have sparked demonstrations and backlash against Tesla. Yaccarino sidestepped the question when asked about how Musk’s involvement with Trump has impacted X’s ad sales.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino shares how the turnaround of the social media giant is going at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. ยทYahoo Finance
X’s financial results have been mixed. EMarketer projects its global ad revenue will rise 16.5% this year to $2.26 billion as businesses return to X while Musk’s influence rises. If reached, it would mark the first increase under his ownership. Global ad sales were $2.36 billion for X in 2022.
Yaccarino said the estimate doesn’t take into account X’s other revenue streams, such as its data developer platform or premium subscriptions.
The social media app has been pushing subscriptions to diversify revenue and drive Musk’s “everything app” vision, though its success remains to be seen. Twitter reeled in $5.08 billion in revenue in 2021 and $2.38 billion in the first half of 2022. At the time, the platform boasted 237.8 million monetizable daily active users.
X has since stopped sharing its active daily user count and total revenue, though Yaccarino said it has nearly 600 million monthly active users.
Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the company’s Q1 earnings call that its X competitor, Threads, now has over 350 million monthly active users. More than 3.4 billion people used at least one of the company’s apps in March. Snap (SNAP) announced in April that Snapchat has surpassed 900 million monthly active users.
X will also launch X Money this year with peer-to-peer payments, Yaccarino confirmed. Investments and trading capabilities could follow.
“A big lure for creators on the platform will be [the ability] to buy merchandise and tip a creator,” she predicted. “Imagine the content that then flocks to the platform. So a whole commerce ecosystem will really emerge and thrive on the platform.”
Meanwhile, TikTok’s fate still hangs in the balance, with its latest deadline to divest its US assets just days away on June 19.
“We don’t think any platform being banned is good for the ecosystem,” Yaccarino said. Under Musk, X has dismantled content moderation and fact-checking efforts under the claim of protecting free speech. It was briefly banned in Brazil last year after disagreements with its courts over spreading disinformation.
A spokesperson for X said the company did not dismantle content moderation. “We replaced the existing content moderation system with Community Notes, which now has 1 million contributors worldwide and is adopted by Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.”
According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California, between January 2022 and June 2023, hate speech on X’s English language posts increased 50%. Transphobic slurs rose 260%, homophobic posts grew 30%, and racist tweets jumped 42%.
In March, Musk’s AI startup xAI completed a takeover of X valued at $33 billion, below the $44 billion he shelled out. Musk said at the time of the deal that X is valued at $45 billion, excluding $12 billion in debt (which he took out for his purchase).
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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