X Vs. Threads Vs. Bluesky: Does Elon Musk's Social Media Site Still Reign Supreme?

The social media landscape saw major shakeups following Elon Musk‘s acquisition of Twitter in 2022. Meta Platforms Inc‘s META Threads and former Twitter entity Bluesky quickly positioned itself as rivals to Musk’s controversial platform.

Two years on, where does the market stand?

The History: Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, citing his desire to maintain free speech on the platform and cut back on content moderation. The polarizing entrepreneur, who has become a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, proceeded to rename the site to “X,” though most users still refer to it as Twitter.

Several advertisers left X following concerns over the platform’s content moderation policies and public statements by Elon Musk, which some critics argue have contributed to the rise of harmful content. Musk has faced criticism for sharing information that has been labeled as misleading by some.

Bluesky, a former project of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has also gained popularity as an alternative to X.

The Metrics: Musk’s investment has not proven to be fruitful—in October, Fidelity valued the platform at $9.4 billion, representing a nearly 80% drop from Musk’s purchase price.

Despite the major reduction in valuation, X still seems to be the most prominent of the three platforms.

Musk’s website boasts a purported 600 million monthly active users; Threads lags at 275 million monthly active users. Another estimate of activity puts X at 251 million daily active users.

While X supports advertising, Threads is not yet monetized.

The Future: Musk’s association with Donald Trump and potential involvement in his cabinet has drawn mixed reactions from X users, with some expressing dissatisfaction. Following Trump’s election win on Nov. 5, NBC reported that over 100,000 users left the platform in a single day, marking a notable moment during Musk’s tenure.

Many of those users flocked to Bluesky. While the newcomer only has 14.5 million users, it has added over a million since the election, according to The Wrap. This may accelerate in the coming months.

Several experts have posited that social media websites’ user bases will become bifurcated by political ideology amid a period of increased polarization.

To some extent, this may have already happened—when Musk polled his followers in August on who they planned to vote for, 73.2% responded that they’d vote for Trump. Thus, if X was a state, it would be the most conservative in the entire United States, redder than West Virginia and Wyoming.

Bluesky, Threads and possibly Reddit Inc RDDT would benefit from further polarization and a push toward users aligning social media choices with personal ideology.

Also Read:

• Tesla To Partner With Lyft, Uber? Analyst Has ‘Rising Conviction’ For Future Partnership

Photo: Shutterstock