X India Hit By 90% Revenue Drop As Major Advertisers Exit: Report

X Corp's Indian subsidiary, formerly Twitter has seen a drop in ad revenue following the dismissal of its ad sales team under Elon Musk's leadership, as per media reports.

The decline in ad sales led to a steep reduction in Twitter Communications India's net profit which fell to Rs 3 crore in FY2024, down from Rs 30 crore the previous year. Revenue also plummeted by 90 per cent, from Rs 208 crore to Rs 21 crore.

Advertising, a key revenue driver for X India has been impacted despite the platform's user base of around 25 million in the country. Employee benefit expenses were slashed by 95 per cent, dropping from Rs 130 crore to Rs 6 crore as nearly all 200 employees were laid off.

Globally, advertisers spent $744 million on X during the first half of 2024, 24 per cent lower than the $982 million spent in the same period in 2023. Since Musk took over in October 2022, X has faced struggles in its ad business as advertisers demanded stronger efforts to curb hate speech and misinformation.

Members of the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) including major brands like IKEA, Microsoft, and Pepsico boycotted the platform. In response, X sued the federation, alleging a conspiracy that led members to withhold billions in ad revenue. Several companies, such as Unilever and CVS Health stopped purchasing ads between November and December 2022.

X recently dropped Unilever from its lawsuit after the company stated that it had "reached an agreement with X." Unilever shared that X had committed to upholding its responsibility standards to ensure the safety and performance of its brands on the platform.

According to Kantar research, it reveals that a net 26 per cent of marketers plan to decrease their ad spending on X in 2025.