Social Media Company X, formerly known as TwitterAxios reported on Tuesday, citing an email sent to advertisers, that it would no longer allow advertisers to promote their accounts to attract new followers during the platform’s schedule.
Promoted accounts, or “follower targeting” ads, generate more than $100 million (approximately Rs. 831 crore) in global revenue for X annually, the report said.
X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Advertisers primarily rely on Promoted Follower Ads to drive business on the platform and target specific audiences.
Former NBCUniversal advertising chief and chief executive Linda Yaccarino has been working to reshape the company since taking over as CEO on June 5, bringing back Elon Musk. Advertisers who left the platform after making the change.
Earlier this month, X was fined $350,000 (nearly Rs 30 crore) by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which said the social media company delayed complying with a request by the U.S. special counsel to investigate Donald Trump. The lawyer obtained a search warrant for the former president’s Twitter account in January.
In July, Musk said X had reached a “new high” in monthly user numbers, and shared a chart showing the most recent user count of more than 540 million.
Musk’s post on user data on X comes as the company is undergoing organizational changes and looking to boost advertising revenue, which has declined in recent months.
Twitter had 229 million monthly active users as of May 2022, according to a statement Musk made before buying the company in October. Musk announced in November that X had 259.4 million daily active users.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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