The company acknowledges that X’s revenue and profits plummeted in the UK when Elon Musk took over the social media platform.
A decrease in ad spending due to concerns about “brand safety and/or content moderation” was cited as a key reason, according to recent accounts submitted.
Twitter UK Ltd also faced significant scrutiny for missing its account filing deadline last month, as noted in recent company filings. It finally filed its complete account in 2023, the year it was rebranded as X after Musk’s acquisition.
“The company continues to develop brand safety tools, invest in platform safety and content moderation, and implement corrective measures to educate advertisers on these initiatives,” stated the company.
Overall revenue amounted to £69.1 million, down 66.3% year-on-year from £205.3 million in 2022. Profit for 2023 dropped to £1.2 million from £5.6 million the previous year, with pre-tax profit decreasing by 74% to £2.25 million. This was described as a “significant decline in the company’s performance.”
The acquisition of masks also led to layoffs, with Musk revealing that only 1,500 of the approximately 8,000 Twitter employees were retained that year.
In the UK, the number of employees at the company decreased from 399 in the previous year to 114, including 173 cuts in the “research and development” sector.
Despite these challenges, X’s value was recently estimated at $44 billion by Musk, and his X.AI artificial intelligence company acquired the business for $33 billion last month.
Farhad Divecha, CEO of Accuracast and founder of unyte.ai, an expert in digital advertising, expressed that the revealed numbers did not come as a surprise.
“The warning signs were evident all along,” he remarked. “If anything, there may now be an opportunity for X to recuperate advertiser revenues, particularly if Musk and his team collaborate to support advertisers and implement brand safety protocols, initially focusing on the UK and Europe.”
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X was contacted for comments, with KinFaiCheung listed as the director who approved the accounts. Cheung and Adeeb Sahar are listed as company directors, while Musk is identified as having a “key management” role at Company House.
Musk established a new company in the UK late last year amid speculation that he intends to make a substantial donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform British Party.
The new company, X.ai London, was founded on December 12th and is involved in “business and domestic software development,” operating from the same London office as X.
Source: www.theguardian.com
