[1/2]A screen capture of Twitter’s official page with an “X” on the profile image is seen on July 23, 2023 in this screengrab obtained from a social media website. via REUTERS/File Photo
July 28 (Reuters) – Elon Musk said on Friday monthly users of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, reached a “new high” and shared a graph that showed the latest count as over 540 million.
Musk’s post on X about the user figures comes as the company goes through organizational changes and looks to boost advertising revenue which has dropped in the recent month.
It is also the latest in a series of comments from X’s executives claiming strong traction in usage, after Meta Platforms (META.O) launched a direct competing platform called Threads on July 5.
Twitter had 229 million monthly active users in May 2022, according to a statement made before Musk’s purchase of the firm in October. Musk posted in November that X had 259.4 million daily active users.
Since taking over, Musk has swiftly moved through a number of product and organizational changes. The company rolled out the verified blue tick as a paid service and has started sharing a cut of the ad sales with select content creators on the platform.
In May, Musk named former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino as CEO of X, signaling that ad sales were a priority even as the platform worked to increase the subscription revenue.
Musk said earlier this month that X’s cash flow was negative because of a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load, without offering details.
Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; `Editing by Sandra Maler and Diane Craft
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