With Elon Musk making the headlines with his Twitter takeover, you’re probably assuming the app is in store for a brighter future. But wait, thanks to one intelligence reports, things aren’t as bright as one may assume.
The news comes as the billionaire’s plans for the future are out in the open, after being leaked. According to Musk, a huge reliance is being placed on user growth, and with that strategy, he plans to move forward with assurance.
But the recent statistics show things won’t go as planned, keeping only that viewpoint in mind.
Insider Intelligence (AKA eMarketer) released a new forecast for the social network in terms of growth for Twitter’s users globally. And as far as this year is concerned, it’s flat and till 2026, predictions are expected to increase by just 1% every year, 2026. Even the number of users in the US is falling to a new low, the report revealed.
When we look at stats from previous years and compare them to the forecast predicted for this year, the difference is huge. Thanks to the pandemic, we saw growth in the number of Twitter users in 2020 and 2021 at about 11.% and 4.%, as compared to just 1.5% for this year.
Insider says Twitter would ultimately be adding nearly 20 million users in 2026 and that is well behind apps like TikTok, Snap, and Instagram. Moreover, the majority of that growth would be seen in parts of Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Therefore, the forecast says that by the next four years, we would witness a decline of at least 1 million active users on the platform. And it’s quite evident now that Twitter growing at a fast pace would no longer be a reality with stats like these.
Jasmine Enberg who serves as a leading analyst revealed through one statement that now that Elon Musk’s plans for the future are out in the open, and how he wishes to increase his subscribers, his goals are not clear. They are a clear indication of the huge shift that we will see in Twitter’s usage.
Another highlighting point in the Insider Intelligence report has to do with engagement and how it is forecasted to stay stagnant throughout the year. Right now, it’s 35 minutes which is just 60 seconds greater than the previous year.
Enberg also raised a strong point that it would be so hard to convince anyone to pay for their Twitter subscriptions, especially when you can get it for free. That’s quite interesting as Musk plans on reducing revenue generated by ads and even paid subscriptions would just pool in less than $2 billion.
Other forecasts were related to how keen Elon Must has become regarding commerce, which is a smart decision, considering how much potential it is and the fact that it’s relatively untapped.
One tech reporter named Chris Teale on MorningConsult mentioned that this compounded with the fact that people aren’t happy with Musk’s campaign for free speech nor keen on his partnership with China will be another major compounding factor worth a glance.
Remember, 30% of Twitter users strongly feel making Twitter private will increase the levels of hate speech while a small minority of them feel things would get better.
Other key findings from the intelligence report had to do with 70% of users being more willing to use Twitter if it was public. Meanwhile, 50% of users would continue using apps like Twitter if the owner happened to be a wealthy billionaire.
Nearly 40% of users would prefer to leave the app if the owner was popular for his rash decisions and almost the same number of people would prefer to leave if the owner had strong relations with China.
More than 50% of Twitter users hold the opinion that these platforms are the ones in charge of the way sensitive or controversial content is displayed, thanks to their policies. But 30% disagreed and felt no, it’s the users themselves who must be held accountable for what sort of content is being rolled out.
Lastly, the report claims almost 60% of users believe platforms reserve the right to remove users after policy violations.
Read next: New Study Proves How Reluctant Twitter Users Are To Include Politics In Their Profile Bios
The news comes as the billionaire’s plans for the future are out in the open, after being leaked. According to Musk, a huge reliance is being placed on user growth, and with that strategy, he plans to move forward with assurance.
But the recent statistics show things won’t go as planned, keeping only that viewpoint in mind.
Insider Intelligence (AKA eMarketer) released a new forecast for the social network in terms of growth for Twitter’s users globally. And as far as this year is concerned, it’s flat and till 2026, predictions are expected to increase by just 1% every year, 2026. Even the number of users in the US is falling to a new low, the report revealed.
When we look at stats from previous years and compare them to the forecast predicted for this year, the difference is huge. Thanks to the pandemic, we saw growth in the number of Twitter users in 2020 and 2021 at about 11.% and 4.%, as compared to just 1.5% for this year.
Insider says Twitter would ultimately be adding nearly 20 million users in 2026 and that is well behind apps like TikTok, Snap, and Instagram. Moreover, the majority of that growth would be seen in parts of Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Therefore, the forecast says that by the next four years, we would witness a decline of at least 1 million active users on the platform. And it’s quite evident now that Twitter growing at a fast pace would no longer be a reality with stats like these.
Jasmine Enberg who serves as a leading analyst revealed through one statement that now that Elon Musk’s plans for the future are out in the open, and how he wishes to increase his subscribers, his goals are not clear. They are a clear indication of the huge shift that we will see in Twitter’s usage.
Another highlighting point in the Insider Intelligence report has to do with engagement and how it is forecasted to stay stagnant throughout the year. Right now, it’s 35 minutes which is just 60 seconds greater than the previous year.
Enberg also raised a strong point that it would be so hard to convince anyone to pay for their Twitter subscriptions, especially when you can get it for free. That’s quite interesting as Musk plans on reducing revenue generated by ads and even paid subscriptions would just pool in less than $2 billion.
Other forecasts were related to how keen Elon Must has become regarding commerce, which is a smart decision, considering how much potential it is and the fact that it’s relatively untapped.
One tech reporter named Chris Teale on MorningConsult mentioned that this compounded with the fact that people aren’t happy with Musk’s campaign for free speech nor keen on his partnership with China will be another major compounding factor worth a glance.
Remember, 30% of Twitter users strongly feel making Twitter private will increase the levels of hate speech while a small minority of them feel things would get better.
Other key findings from the intelligence report had to do with 70% of users being more willing to use Twitter if it was public. Meanwhile, 50% of users would continue using apps like Twitter if the owner happened to be a wealthy billionaire.
Nearly 40% of users would prefer to leave the app if the owner was popular for his rash decisions and almost the same number of people would prefer to leave if the owner had strong relations with China.
More than 50% of Twitter users hold the opinion that these platforms are the ones in charge of the way sensitive or controversial content is displayed, thanks to their policies. But 30% disagreed and felt no, it’s the users themselves who must be held accountable for what sort of content is being rolled out.
Lastly, the report claims almost 60% of users believe platforms reserve the right to remove users after policy violations.
