Elon Musk has been known to be the kind of person who speaks his mind, even if it's sometimes better that he doesn't. His recent extreme comments just prove that, and it looks like the consequences are just as dire as ever.
Elon Musk Reacts With Expletives
During a conference on Wednesday, the tech billionaire made his feelings clear by uttering expletives meant for advertisers, words which we prefer not to repeat here. He even called out to Disney CEO Bob Iger, as the company is among those who concluded their business with X.
It looks like the advertisers are following Musk's hope that they stop advertising, as several say they don't plan on returning to X any time soon or at all. The reaction is already expected since insults aren't really effective ways to encourage business partners back to a platform.
Founder and CEO of marketing firm AJL Advisory, Lou Paskalis, explicitly said that they are stopping ads on the microblogging site permanently. "There is no advertising value that would offset the reputational risk of going back on the platform," the chief executive stated.
More than 200 advertisers have already left the site, according to The New York Times, which is bad for business since X largely relies on ad revenue. It doesn't help that the X owner acts out every time he encounters any form of opposition.
Even a year ago, when advertisers decided to halt their business with X, Musk responded by threatening them with a "thermonuclear name & shame." He poetically stayed true to his nature as he threatened a "thermonuclear lawsuit" this time around with the same situation.
The advertisers' exit last year was an indirect result of Musk's reshaping of Twitter, wherein users started posting insensitive and derogatory posts in light of the X owner's "free speech" vision for the platform.
This time, the content that advertisers wanted to get as far away from was from Musk himself. The tech billionaire has been criticized for agreeing to an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which companies like Lionsgate said was specifically why they were leaving the site.
This Could Sink X Further
The company was already at the risk of losing revenue for the temporary ad pause alone. Now that advertisers have already said that they don't plan on returning, more holes appear on the sinking boat that is X.
Big advertisers such as Apple, Disney, IBM, Warner Bros. Discovery, and more have already left X, which was immediately followed by Netflix, Airbnb, and Microsoft. The latest exits mentioned could cost X around $4 million in ad revenue.
According to Engadget, the microblogging site could lose up to $75 million for that one post. X CEO Linda Yaccarino previously said in a memo to employees that the advertisers' exodus was only temporary, but it is no longer the case.
The appointed CEO keeps putting out fires within the company while Musk keeps saying things that pull the company further down. It's safe to say that no one wants to be in Yaccarino's shoes right now.
