Advertising spending on Twitter plummeted by 71% in December, according to data from ad research firm Standard Media Index (SMI).
The news comes as many advertisers continue to slash their spending on the social media platform.
Last week, The Information revealed that over 500 advertisers had paused their spending on Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover, leading to a 40% decrease in revenue compared to last year.
In a bid to salvage revenue for the business, the Tesla CEO announced plans earlier this week (24 January) to introduce an advertising-free version of its subscription product. The move intends to raise the demand for its premium offering.
Twitter relaunched its premium offering for the second time in December, offering everyone perks such as ‘blue tick’ account verification for £6.50 ($8) a month. This soon lead to brands like Nintendo and Apple being impersonated by online trolls with seemingly authentic, verified accounts.
Musk tweeted about the proposed ad-free tier launch, writing: “Ads are too frequent on Twitter and too big. Taking steps to address both in coming weeks.
“Also, there will be a higher priced subscription that allows zero ads.”
Also, there will be a higher priced subscription that allows zero ads
— Mr. Tweet (@elonmusk) January 21, 2023
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Musk hopes to reduce the platform’s reliance on advertising as he looks to pay off an interest payment on the £11.2 billion ($13 billion) debt he put on the company as part of the takeover.
“Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn,” Musk told Twitter staff in a company-wide email in November. “We need roughly half of our revenue to be subscription.”
