Twitter India net profit declines by 90% due to sharp drop in ad revenue: Report
Twitter Communications has also cut employee benefit expenses by 95 percent to Rs 6 crore from Rs 130 crore after it fired nearly the entire workforce in India, which previously comprised 200 employees
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Global social media giant X Corp's (formerly Twitter) Indian subsidiary has witnessed a sharp drop in the advertisement revenue after the dismissal of the company's ad sales team under the new management led by billionaire Elon Musk, according to a report by The Economic Times.
With the decline in ad sales revenue, Twitter Communications India also registered a sharp decline in net profit. The X Platform's Indian arm posted a profit of Rs 3 crore only in fiscal year 2024 compared to Rs 30 crore in the previous financial year. Compnay's revenue fell 90 percent to Rs 21 crore compared to Rs 208 crore.
Notably, advertising is one of the key sources of revenue of Twitter India where it has around 25 million users.
Twitter Communications has also cut employee benefit expenses by 95 percent to Rs 6 crore from Rs 130 crore after it fired nearly the entire workforce in India, which previously comprised 200 employees.
Globally, advertisers spent almost $744 million on X during the first six months of 2024--24% lower than compared to $982 million spent in the first half of 2023.
The X Corp and its Indian subsidiary are facing a struggle in their ad business since Musk officially took ownership of the company in October 2022. Musk pressurized advertisers to keep spending their money while offering a few assurances that they would curtail hate speech and misinformation.
Subsequently, members of the World Federation of Advertisers’s Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), such as IKEA, Microsoft, Dell, Pepsico, and others boycotted the X platform.
Later, X filed lawsuits against the federation. Thereafter, at least 18 companies stopped purchasing ads between November and December 2022, such as Unilever, and CVS Health. X alleged that the federation created a conspiracy that saw its members “withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue," Quartz reported.
Recently, X dropped Unilever from a lawsuit. The FMCG brand said in a statement it had "reached an agreement with X, which has committed to meeting our responsibility standards to ensure the safety and performance of our brands on the platform".
According to Kantar research, a net 26 percent of marketers reported plans to reduce ad spending on X in 2025.
