Greetings, senior tech reporter Kylie Robison, here, and cheers to the new year! As you sketch out your 2024 resolutions, it’s important to remember that consistency is key. Take X (formerly Twitter), for instance, which has consistently seen its valuation fall and fall, reaching new lows just in time for the fresh start.
According to Axios, Fidelity, the mutual fund titan instrumental in Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of X, has marked down the value of its investment for the fourth time since October 2022. The firm’s current value for X is a staggering 71.5% below the acquisition price. Not entirely shocking, given that Musk bid adieu to 2023 with a bold message to the big brand advertisers boycotting his platform—“go f–k yourself”—along with a special nod to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Adding to the drama, I managed to scoop details from an internal X meeting back in November where CEO Linda Yaccarino rallied the troops to seek alternative revenue sources as advertisers hit pause on X, triggered by a Media Matters report on anti-Semitic content. Oh, also, Musk endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that month. It’s safe to say, the outlook for the platform continues to be quite bleak.
Elon Musk, who doubles as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has expressed his desire to transform X into an “everything app” seamlessly integrating social media with payment and commerce functions. However, under Musk’s leadership, the company’s path has been tumultuous, characterized by notable technical hiccups, controversies surrounding content moderation, and alterations to features that have unsettled many longtime users. The platform has also doubled down on X Premium and even added a new tier that allows users access to Musk’s new AI chatbot, called Grok. While subscriber metrics are kept under extreme lock and key at X, whatever amount they are, it’s clear the company cannot be kept afloat by these subscribers alone.
Whether Musk can admit it or not, happy advertisers and power users have always been the lifeblood of this platform. As it stands, both are fleeing X, and there doesn’t seem to be a resolution in sight. The social media landscape has become increasingly more fragmented, as Meta’s Threads and the decentralized Bluesky encroach upon X’s user territory. Peering into 2024, I don’t foresee any rival outright devouring X’s lunch, but it’s evident that people are growing weary of the unpredictable billionaire’s theatrics. I suspect the platform will see diminishing use, and advertisers will find decreasing value in it, particularly if their ads continue to appear alongside objectionable content.
Even in the new year, some things really never change. As always, I’ll continue to keep you in the loop on all things X. Feel free to share any tips with me through Signal at 415-735-6829 or via email at kylie.robison@fortune.com.
Kylie Robison
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NEWSWORTHY
Canva eyes $1 billion employee stock sale. Design software startup Canva is reportedly on the verge of finalizing a deal enabling longtime employees and investors to sell over $1 billion in stock to new investors, The Information reported. The company’s valuation in this deal is set at $26 billion, with no plans to raise additional capital. Instead, the focus is on allowing existing stakeholders to liquidate their positions.
Headlines are so back. X has reintroduced headlines to posts with links on its web client only a few months after removing them from link cards on the platform. The new format includes the headline of the linked article or web page, displayed in a small format as white text on a black box in the bottom left corner of the image preview, 9to5Google reported.
Drama at Alibaba. Alibaba is navigating internal challenges and a decline in its market dominance, marked by a 75% decrease in the value of its shares since the peak three years ago, the Financial Timesreported. The company’s initial restructuring plan, which aimed to split into six units, was abandoned in November. The cloud spinoff became a source of difficulty, leading to internal power struggles and a reduction in sales, the report added.
ON OUR FEED
“I wouldn’t step back necessarily from all of the concerns I raised when I talked way back in April, but I might choose slightly different words to make my point.”
—Microsoft president Brad Smith in an interview with the BBC about the U.K. competition regulator’s review of the company’s $69 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision. The U.K. dropped its objections to the deal in October, allowing Microsoft to complete the acquisition. Smith had previously criticized the regulator’s efforts to block the deal, saying that the EU was a better place to start a business than the U.K.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
YouTube’s richest star, MrBeast, rejects Elon Musk’s appeal to share content on X because the platform couldn’t ‘fund a fraction’ of his costs, by Eleanor Pringle
No Christmas miracle for Elon Musk as Tesla loses crown as world’s largest EV maker to Warren Buffett–backed BYD, by Christiaan Hetzner
What the New York Times’ copyright suit means for AI, by Jeremy Kahn
2024 will be the ‘year of AI’ as tech stocks surge by (at least) 25%, top tech analyst Dan Ives predicts, by Will Daniel
The world’s 10 wealthiest people got nearly half a trillion dollars richer in 2023—and Elon Musk was the biggest winner, by Chris Morris
BEFORE YOU GO
Bitcoin bounces back. The price of Bitcoin surged to almost $46,000 on Tuesday, marking a 7% increase for the day and reaching its highest level since April 2022. The cryptocurrency had experienced a series of gains in the last quarter, Fortune’s Jeff John Roberts reported, suggesting a potential onset of a new bull market for the crypto industry, bouncing back from a challenging 2022.
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