Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is facing challenges with the social media platform "X". While Musk has established a close relationship with President Donald Trump during the U.S. presidential election landscape, he has recently split from Trump and formalized the founding of a new party, creating political backlash from both progressive and conservative sides. As Musk's political involvement deepens, user departures are accelerating, and Threads, the social media platform led by Mark Zuckerberg at Meta, is threatening X's position. In Korea, Threads has already surpassed X in terms of monthly active users, significantly widening the gap.
On the 8th, according to internet traffic analysis firm Similarweb, the global daily active users (DAU) of Threads last month reached 115.1 million, narrowing the gap with X's 132 million users to about 17 million. Threads' DAU has increased by 127.8% compared to the same period last year, while X's DAU decreased by 15.2% during the same time frame.
In fact, as Musk rose to become Trump’s closest ally during last year’s U.S. election, progressive users largely left X, and this year, as Musk has shown an anti-Trump stance, trust among conservative users is also reported to be wavering. Recently, Trump criticized Musk’s newly declared party, "America First Party," saying it "only creates chaos," leaving Musk isolated in the political arena.
The political risks are impacting not just X's brand image but also having a direct effect on users. The repercussions are notably observed in Korea as well. According to app statistics analysis platform Mobile Index, last month, Threads recorded 5.32 million monthly active users (MAU), more than double X's 2.54 million users. Just a year ago, the gap between Threads (2.64 million) and X (2.31 million) was negligible, but Threads has seen rapid growth, reversing the trend. Since the beginning of the year, Threads' domestic user base has been growing by an average of over 200,000 each month, while X remains stagnant. This is interpreted as a result of accumulated differences in the platform's appeal in addition to the political controversies.
Threads has lowered entry barriers with Instagram account integration and offers a lightweight user experience without ads. Recently, it has added direct messaging (DM) features and trending content functions (highlighter), expanding its capabilities as a text-based social media platform. There were previous criticisms regarding the lack of messaging functions limiting user communication, but the ability to exchange messages among Instagram followers has reportedly improved the functional completeness.
Meta has actively introduced advertising to Threads since April, initiating a monetization strategy. Currently, 75% of Threads users follow at least one corporate account, which is also emphasized as being advertising-friendly.
Changes in global corporations' strategies also lend weight to the growth of Threads. Notably, Apple recently opened its first official brand account on Threads two years after its launch, utilizing the auto-linking feature based on Instagram followers to secure 4.8 million followers within a day. Although some subsidiaries such as Apple Music and Apple News have been operating Threads accounts, this is the first time Apple has created an independent account. While Apple still has over 10 million followers on X, it is diversifying its social media channel strategy by concurrently utilizing Threads.
On the other hand, as CEO Musk's political activities intensify, the structural risks for X can only continue to grow. An industry insider noted, "Until now, Musk’s personal brand has been a symbol and marketing tool for X, but now, the clash with his political stance seems to be undermining the brand's value."