Elon Musk’s social media platform X suffered a 58% revenue collapse in its U.K. operations during 2024, according to financial disclosures newly filed with Companies House, marking another brutal year for the company formerly known as Twitter as advertisers continue to flee amid concerns about the brand and its billionaire owner.
Since Musk acquired X in 2022 and took the company private, financial disclosures from the company have been few and far between. The 2024 financial documents from the U.K. are the most recent insight into the social media company’s financial performance.
X’s U.K. arm reported revenue of just $39.8 million for the year ending Dec. 31, 2024, down from $95.2 million in 2023. The stark decline represents the continuation of a catastrophic advertising exodus that began when Musk acquired the platform in October 2022. Revenue from U.K. operations had already plummeted 66% in 2023 from $282.9 million the previous year.
“The significant decrease in the performance of the company is a result of the decline of advertising revenue primarily driven by a reduction in spend from large brand advertisers due to concerns about brand safety, reputation and/or content moderation,” the company acknowledged in its strategic report filed with U.K. regulators.
Workplace and culture expert Bruce Daisley, who previously served as Twitter’s vice president of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and as Twitter U.K.’s managing director, told Fortune that the U.K. market has historically served as a reliable proxy for the platform’s global health, despite accounting for only roughly 5.3% of its total revenue. “It’s a mature economy, and it’s reflecting what’s happening in the rest of the world,” Daisley explained, pointing to the developed network of e-commerce vendors and the U.K. economy’s diversified verticals.
“I can’t remember an example in the history of marketing where someone from a platform has threatened to go to law and sue people who don’t spend money with him,” Daisley told Fortune, describing the approach as “astonishing.” He characterized Musk’s strategy as “mafia-like,” noting that marketers he’s spoken with “just want nothing to do with the brand, the product, or the audience.”
Despite the grim trajectory, Daisley believes the platform isn’t “beyond salvation” if leadership changes course. “It still remains a remarkably influential platform. It hasn’t yet been fully substituted,” he said. However, he sees little indication of reform: “It’s hard to see any revival of their revenues without change.”
