X’s revenues and profits collapsed in the UK in the year after Elon Musk took over the social media platform, the company has admitted.
A decline in advertising spending amid concerns about “brand safety and/or content moderation” were cited as the reason for the fall, according to accounts filed this week to Companies House.
Twitter UK Ltd also narrowly averted being struck off last month for failing to file the accounts on time, according to other recent filings to Companies House. It only filed full accounts on Monday for 2023, the year in which it was rebranded as X after Musk’s takeover.
“The business continues to take corrective measures to build brand safety tools, invest in platform safety and content moderation and then educate advertisers about these initiatives,” the company said.
Its overall revenue totalled £69.1m, down from £205.3m in 2022, a decrease of 66.3% year-on-year. The profit for 2023 dropped from £5.6m the previous year to £1.2m. Pre-tax profits were 74% lower at £2.25 million. This was a “significant decrease in the performance of the company”, it said.
Musk’s takeover also led to a wave of sackings, with the billionaire telling the BBC in 2023 that only 1,500 of about 8,000 Twitter employees were still employed at the company in that year.
In the UK, the accounts show that the number of the company’s employees fell to 114, from 399 the previous year. This included a cut of 173 to the number employed in “research and development”.
Despite its struggles, the value of X soared back earlier this year to the $44bn Musk paid for it and last month his X.AI artificial intelligence firm acquired the business for $33bn.
Farhad Divecha, a digital advertising expert who is chief executive of AccuraCast and founder of Unyte.AI, said he was not surprised at what the figures revealed.
“The indicators have been there all along,” he said. “If anything, I think we’ve seen the worst and X might finally have the chance to recover advertiser revenues, but that’s only going to happen in UK and Europe if Musk and his crew pull their act together, provide support for advertisers and put in place some brand safety guardrails.”
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X has been approached for comment, as has Kin Fai Cheung, whose name is listed as the director who signed off on the accounts. Cheung and Adeeb Sahar are listed as the company’s directors although Musk is recorded at Companies House as the person with “significant control”.
Musk set up a new company in the UK at the end of last year amid speculation that he was planning to make a large donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
The company, called X.AI London, was incorporated on 12 December. It was recorded as being engaged in “business and domestic software development” and is based at the same London offices as X.
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