What Twitter’s shift in strategy means for the whole of social media
Twitter has faced several challenges in finding a viable business model. Despite generating substantial revenue from advertising, this model has clearly seen to be unsustainable in the long run. Additionally, Twitter has struggled to monetize its user base, with users being hesitant to pay for premium content or services. However, the rebrand to X represents a significant shift in Twitter’s strategy, with the platform positioning itself as the center of everything.
X aims to create a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities, using unlimited interactivity centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking, and powered by AI, according to its CEO. The platform is looking to create value through content and transactions, rather than just being a platform for random content. By doing this, X’s main strategy is to create a more transparent and profitable environment for creators.
The shift towards financial incentives for creators is likely to change the social media landscape significantly. Platforms that rely solely on social interactions may struggle to keep up as more platforms shift towards creator-pay focused approaches. This change is more about how others in the industry will change as a result of X, rather than what the platform will do itself.
One example of how this shift is playing out in the market is the founding of Threads. Threads was augmented by former Twitter employees as a messaging app to address some of the shortcomings of Twitter. However, the app has struggled to maintain engagement due to the loss of network effect and other incentives. In contrast, X’s engagement seems to have bottomed out now, with people more intrigued about where the platform could go.
The introduction of X not only represents a significant shift in Twitter’s strategy, is also one that has the potential to reshape the social media landscape as a whole. One way to view that in it historical context; we have to admit that social media now isn’t the same social media from before. In the 2000s, new subscribers were focused on these platforms as a way to connect as previously we were not connected. Now that we live in a hyper-connected world, any social media platform’s imperative is to incentive users to stay on their platforms.
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