Data.ai predicts a fall in Twitter and Threads by 2024

According to a Hootsuite survey, prominent microblogging software Twitter, rebranded X, was the sixth most popular social media site in the globe in 2022. X is unlikely to be able to replicate the achievement and make the same list in the future. According to the newest analysis from Data.ai, a San Francisco-based AI startup that examines mobile app market data, X's Daily Active Users (DAU) will decline to 250 million, a loss of 53 million from April 2022, when it was acquired by Elon Musk, and a drop of 66 million from its high in July 2022.

According to the analysis, not only X, but the entire microblogging market, would experience additional decline in 2024 due to a convergence of competitors and usage patterns. According to the poll, Threads has also lost 40 million DAU in November 2023 compared to its peak day on July 7, 2023, when it had 61 million. According to previous projections, the Indian microblogging network Koo's monthly active users will drop to around 3.1 million in April 2023. The drop in the microblogging segment is being attributed to a steady shift in how individuals consume news material. People now prefer video news over text news, which is available on video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and others. While platforms like X are likely to retain a core user base, overall trends show that consumers are abandoning text-based social networking apps in favour of photo and video-first platforms. There is a general shift in where news content is being absorbed, along with a series of mismanagement and public image blunders for X, the research emphasises. It's worth noting that X stopped showing headlines from news articles (which Musk now says the platform will resume), introduced, status to $8-per-month X Premium subscribers (whose posts receive algorithmic preference), and launched a test to charge users $1 per year to post to the platform, among other things that have turned off many users.

According to the Data.ai research, the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok, which has been banned in India since 2020, is making greater inroads into X's new stronghold in the US. More than 43% of US TikTok users say they get their news from the platform, more than doubling from three years ago, X (Twitter), formerly the first port of call for news, has seen its share of people seeking news shrink from 59% to 53% during the same time period. Video news is now king.

Changing the users preferences

Microblogging emerged as a result of the demise of more traditional pre-digital information mediums such as newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. Aside from its 24-hour availability, they enabled widespread engagement in what had previously been an elite- dominated, pure push and one-to-many broadcasting approach. Twitter, Threads, Koo, and LinkedIn all began in very different industries, but they are all pursuing the same customer experience. The younger generation is always looking for new experiences. Short video platforms are extremely popular among Generation Z and X, one ad executive explains.

In the meantime, the media landscape is shifting from fragmentation to convergence. Social media platforms strive to provide a variety of services in order to boost user engagement and retention. Netflix and Amazon, for example, both provide video games. Experts claim that the widespread adoption of algorithmic feeds (for example, TikTok is selling their algorithm) is another indicator of convergence in the media landscape. According to a media planner, "On a macro level, audience attention is shifting away from professional productions and towards user-generated content. This will help video-sharing apps even more in the coming days.