By Krystal Scanlon  •  December 13, 2024  •

Ivy Liu

Fueling this growth is X’s foray into original content like “The Offseason,” a series spotlighting the National Women’s Soccer League. Per X, the series racked up 2.5 million views within its first 24 hours on the platform.

“Originals content is part of X’s video growth, with ‘The Offseason’ averaging 33 million impressions per episode,” X’s global head of marketing Angela Zepeda told Digiday.

And there’s more to come. X has projects lined up with Serena Williams and Khloe Kardashian, both set to debut in January.

“You can absolutely expect more video content on X in 2025,” Zepeda added. “It’s clear that our users are not just consuming video — they’re engaging with it consistently. We also have the X TV App in place. So whether it’s LG Smart TVs, Google, you now have the power of X taken from your phone to your living room.”

These efforts underpin X’s claim that overall time spent on the platform is up by double digits, with a 10% year-on-year increase this year, though, unsurprisingly, specifics remain under wraps.

Douglas Brundage, founder and CEO of global brand studio Kingsland, said that he thinks the narrative that “Twitter/X is dead” has been overstated. “X remains the home of pop culture in many ways, with instant takes on news and live events like sports,” he added.

“X has a loyal userbase, and even though the content has become less reliable and more toxic, it’s still an important source of news, even if it’s just to go on X to see what crazy things people are saying,” said Jasmine Enberg, vp and principal analyst, social media and the creator economy, at eMarketer. “There is a strong consumer appetite for it.”

That loyalty, however, is more concentrated than ever. As droves of users leave the platform, those who remain are increasingly among its most committed — and most captive — audience. That’s how Shamsul Chowdhury, evp of paid social at Jellyfish, has reconciled X’s video view numbers, given they’re much higher than what he’s seen on other platforms. “I think it’s because X had a large exodus over the last few years, meaning the base has been lower compared to Instagram and TikTok,” he said.

Comparatively, the numbers Chowdhury is comparing X to are video views on Instagram Reels (over 120 billion daily views, growing at around 20% in 2024) and TikTok (about 200 billion monthly views, growing at about 10% year over year). Though he did offer the caveat that time spent on both Instagram and TikTok have been close to parity with X, also around 10%, he said. Put in this context, X certainly looks like it’s on the right track.

But while video views may be climbing on X, advertisers remain wary. One reason for this is the platform’s polarizing owner doesn’t help. More critically, X has a trust issue. Whether its X or another platform, marketers view self-reported metrics with skepticism — especially when they can’t independently verify them.

“All these metrics that any platform shares can’t really be validated,” said one U.S.-based ad executive who exchanged anonymity for candor. “A third party could say, ‘we confirm that this is true,’ but that almost never happens. And if a platform is sharing metrics, they almost always differ from what an independent party will share on their own.”

Until X overcomes those bigger reputation hurdles, its pursuit of ad dollars may remain an uphill battle, with lofty goals that look more like pipe dreams.

“I don’t know that we see brands caring about that [those types of figures] as much,” added the U.S.-based exec. “Yes, they’re [advertisers] keeping an eye on them, but there’s other reasons why they don’t want to be present on the platform, and none of those metrics are addressing those concerns.”

Brundage agreed that X’s growth is a good sign for the platform and its prospects with advertisers, but he said he still does not see a future where brands spend a huge amount of their budgets there. “Even in a [potential] post-TikTok world, I do think X remains fairly niche but will continue to have an outsize impact on ‘the culture’ at large,” he added.

Still, the fact that X has even shared its numbers on video in the first place shows that it’s at least trying to address its issues — albeit on its own terms.

It’s why the platform has continued to push on its brand safety efforts, including overhauling its team and how it operates and reengaging with the Trustworthy Accountability Group to get re-certified for brand safety. It’s why we’ve seen the return of its transparency report, which had been discontinued since 2021, and the return of client councils. It’s why we’ve seen a huge push throughout 2024’s summer of sports, through its partnership with Genius Sports to launch its Trend Genius tool, tapping into its “real-time” USP and launching its NFL portal to expand the league’s content partnership on X.

Now we can add its video push to the list.

https://digiday.com/?p=563180