Twitter has 396 million total users.
Up from 330 million in 2017.
Up 20%
Twitter has 217 million daily active users today.
Up from 109 million in 2017.
Up 99%
Twitter had 5 billion in revenue for 2021.
Up from 2.4 billion in 2017.
Up 108%
Twitter lost 221 million in 2021.
Worse than the 108 million lost in 2017.
Losses up 104%
This on surface looks pretty good for Twitter, where revenue is climbing, users are climbing at a fairly steady pace and even with losses being up for 2021, Twitter was profitable in 2020 and 2019.
Where does this stack up with other social media companies though?
Revenue in 2021-117 billion
Revenue in 2017-19.4 billion
Up 503%
Profit in 2021-39 billion
Profit in 2017-15.9 billion
Up 82%
Users on the three main products.
Facebook has 2.9 billion users today.
Had 1.3 billion in 2017.
Up 123%
Instagram has 1.1 billion users.
Had 700 million in 2017.
Up 57%
WhatsApp has 2 billion users.
Had 1.5 billion in 2017.
Up 33%
That’s Facebook, which in profitability, users and revenue beat Twitter on all three products.
Now, Snapchat
Snapchat made 4.1 billion in 2021 revenue.
Had 825 million in 2017.
Up 396%
Snapchat lost 488 million in 2021.
They lost 3.4 billion in 2017
Losses down 85%
Snapchat has 530 million users.
173 million in 2017.
Up 206%
Snapchat isn’t as profitable or big as Facebook, but again, shows stronger numbers over Twitter.
And those are two public companies, which has 95%+ of revenue come from social media.
Since 2017, there’s been a lot to change, which people can’t buy stock in or are part of other companies.
- YouTube made 28 billion in 2021.
- Discord has 140 million users and launched in 2017.
- TikTok has 1 billion users and only exists, due to Twitter’s decision to cut Vine from the company.
I’m writing this due to the buyout, just to say Elon Musk has some work to do, if he wants to spin this into a strong investment.
Twitter so far has went from being seen as this innovative tech company, to just more of a dated media brand, which people fight on.
For the idea of him being able to fix this, it’s really a question of if he can adopt changes that’ll make it fun for people to use.
Interesting question, but he bought a weird investment.