X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, could lose up to $75 million in advertising revenue by year’s end as dozens of major brands pause their marketing campaigns after its owner Elon Musk endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory this month has .
Internal documents seen by The New York Times this week show that the company is in a more difficult situation than previously known and that concerns about Mr. Musk and the platform have spread far beyond companies like IBM, Apple and Disney , who suspended their advertising campaigns on X last week. The documents list more than 200 ad units from companies including Airbnb, Amazon, Coca-Cola and Microsoft, many of which have stopped or are considering pausing their ads on the social network.
The documents come from the sales team of They list how much advertising revenue X employees fear the company could lose by the end of the year if advertisers don’t return.
On Friday, X said in a statement that $11 million in revenue was at risk and that the exact figure fluctuated as some advertisers returned to the platform and others increased spending. The company said the figures seen by The Times were either outdated or represented an internal exercise to assess overall risk.
The advertising stops come in the last three months of the year, which is traditionally the social media company’s strongest quarter as brands run holiday promotions for events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In the final three months of 2021 – the last year the company reported fourth-quarter profits before Mr. Musk took over – the company reported revenue of $1.57 billion, nearly 90 percent of which came from advertising came from.
Since Mr. Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter last year, some brands have been reluctant to advertise on the platform, concerned about Mr. Musk’s behavior and content moderation decisions, which have led to a rise in inflammatory content and hateful content. U.S. advertising on the platform has fallen nearly 60 percent this year, prompting the company to try to win back advertisers, with its chief executive Linda Yaccarino leading the way. X also advocates for advertisers to return during the holiday season to make up for lost revenue earlier in the year.
However, the documents show that this did not go according to plan. More than 100 brands are shown to have “completely paused” their ads, while dozens of others are listed as “at risk”. Many paused on or after November 15th when Mr. Musk made a post
Leesha Anderson, vice president of digital marketing and social media at ad agency Outcast, said that after Mr. Musk’s takeover, her clients consistently stopped spending on X and found alternatives on platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok.
“In today’s dynamic marketplace, brands have a wealth of platform options available for precise audience targeting,” she said. “Therefore, it is essential for the managers and owners of social platforms to exercise conscious discretion in all aspects, be it regarding their personal beliefs or their political positions, as these decisions will inevitably be subject to public scrutiny.”
According to the documents, the organizations that have paused their ads on X range from political campaigns to fast food chains to tech giants. Airbnb, for example, stopped more than $1 million in advertising, while Uber cut more than $800,000 in ads and halted campaigns in U.S. and international markets. Both technology companies declined to comment.
Other major brands, including Jack in the Box, Coca-Cola and Netflix, have paused some of their campaigns. X estimates that the discontinued Netflix ads were worth nearly $3 million. Jack in the Box, Coca-Cola and Netflix did not respond to requests for comment.
Various Microsoft subsidiaries have also stopped advertising – which would result in a potential revenue loss of more than $4 million in X’s fourth quarter, according to the documents – as have Amazon’s books and music units and a Google subsidiary. The search giant and several other brands that have stopped spending, including NBCUniversalhave continued to publish content on the platform without paying X to ensure it reaches a wide audience.
Google and Microsoft declined to comment. Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie called Mr. Musk’s comments part of a recent wave of “outrageous hate.”
“Whether it’s Elon Musk, whether it’s professors on our college campuses or students who are misleading them, or whether it’s individuals who are speaking out in anti-Semitic ways on the streets of our cities,” he said.
Two days before Mr. Christie’s appearance, a super PAC supporting him called Tell It Like It Is withdrew its advertising from X, according to the documents. A representative for the political fundraising group did not respond to a request for comment.
At an internal meeting with X employees this week, Ms. Yaccarino expressed a defiant mood. She did not mention that Mr. Musk endorsed the anti-Semitic post and attributed the company’s problems to a report by left-wing media watchdog group Media Matters that showed ads on X from companies like IBM and Apple appeared alongside posts promoting white nationalist and National Socialist content.
On Monday, after Mr. Musk called Media Matters “an evil organization,” paid posts from X’s largest advertisers alongside racist, inflammatory content.” Ms. Yaccarino blamed the Media Matters report for X’s declining advertising sales.
“Succumbing to external criticism or pressure is simply not the way X will ever operate,” she wrote in an email to X employees on Wednesday, seen by The Times. “The people at X are free speech advocates. We stand in solidarity with those who believe in this fundamental right and the critical checks and balances of a thriving democracy.”
Earlier this week, Mr. Musk spent time celebrating companies that continue to advertise on X, including the National Football League. Use a heart emojiThe billionaire owner of
Mr. Musk too written down that the company would “donate all advertising and subscription revenues related to the war in Gaza to hospitals in Israel and the Gaza Red Cross/Crescent.” The funding includes revenue from ads purchased by charities, news organizations and other groups that promoted content related to the conflict.
Ms. Yaccarino followed her boss and added a request to Mr. Musk’s original post.
“Lean over and help,” she said wrote on X
Tiffany Hsu contributed reporting.