Billionaire Elon Musk has always yearned to “outshine” CEO Mark Zuckerberg more than anyone else, but it seems that, in the short term, the head of platform X won’t achieve his goal anytime soon…

According to Business Insider, Elon Musk is gradually losing hope of surpassing his long-time rival, CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

While the Meta boss is busy taking selfies with camels, surfing, enjoying summer vacations, and witnessing a nearly $53 billion increase in his net worth this year, bringing it to $181 billion, Elon Musk remains the richest person in the world with a net worth of $228 billion, primarily from his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. However, in recent weeks, platform X has faced numerous controversies, putting the company at risk of falling far behind Zuckerberg’s social media empire.

Having spent nearly two years running X in San Francisco, Elon Musk has been determined to squeeze advertisers off the platform while facing accusations of allowing a wave of misinformation to spread on X.

This move has also impacted X’s financial risks, damaging the reputation of its leadership and the company as they strive to outpace Zuckerberg, who infuriated Musk by launching the Threads platform last year.

THE BATTLE HAS TAKEN A TURN

If the current situation continues, Musk might have to abandon all hopes of X achieving a valuation of $1.3 trillion, as the platform is currently valued far lower than the $44 billion he paid for Twitter in 2022.

One of the biggest challenges for X to compete with Zuckerberg’s heavyweight social media platform is generating revenue.

Since taking control of the platform, the 55-year-old entrepreneur has constantly struggled with advertisers who have either left or threatened to leave due to concerns over rampant misinformation under his leadership.

This is a significant issue for X; last year, CEO Musk vented his frustrations to advertisers, telling them to “take care of themselves” and attempted to navigate users into purchasing ad-free subscription packages.

REVENUE DECLINE

According to a recent report from The New York Times, citing internal documents, X’s revenue has dropped by 25% from the first quarter of the year to $114 million, a 53% decrease compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Meta has witnessed a surge in advertising revenue, enabling the company to continue investing in several new areas such as artificial intelligence. In the second quarter of this year, the company’s revenue (primarily from advertising) rose by 22% year-over-year to $39 billion.

Last week, Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino announced that X had filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a trade group, over a boycott that has cost X billions.

In Musk’s words, this is a declaration of war to improve X’s revenue.

The lawsuit seems to threaten the trade group in question. GARM told its members that they would “pause” operations following Musk’s legal threats. While X’s owner views this as a victory, it indirectly undermines relationships with other advertisers.

MISINFORMATION

Several recent developments have also failed to bring advertisers and revenue back to X anytime soon.

Since the riots occurred in the UK at the end of July, X has faced multiple accusations regarding the spread and dissemination of misinformation, which could potentially incite violence.

A study conducted by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that X contributed to generating 434 million views for posts by extremist figure Tommy Robinson during the riots in the UK. From July 29 to August 5, posts averaged 54.3 million views per day on X, five times the daily views before the riots.

According to the analysis, Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) played a “significant role in inciting hatred, creating division among the people since the Southport attack on July 29.” The content primarily “promoted false claims or conspiracy theories.”

The owner of X spread a post containing a fake headline from a British newspaper. The owner of X disseminated a post containing a fake headline from a British newspaper. Notably, Musk, who has a following of 193 million on X, also participated in spreading misinformation. He shared a post with a fabricated headline from a UK newspaper, claiming that a “detention camp” would be built on the Falkland Islands to hold rioters. The post was subsequently deleted.

He also wrote on X that “civil war is inevitable,” as accounts on the platform have continuously attempted to distort reality, actively posting videos of protests and riots on the streets of the UK.

According to The Financial Times, X has declined requests from UK officials to remove the controversial post.

Last weekend, Prime Minister Kier Starmer stated that the UK’s anti-misinformation law is under review. Of course, many other platforms also facilitate the spread of misinformation, such as the messaging app Telegram.

Nevertheless, these perplexing actions have hindered billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to surpass CEO Zuckerberg in the social media race and his plans to enhance the appeal of X.