60+ Twitter Statistics – Investment, Revenue & Users for November 2024

Twitter is an American company that revolutionized global discourse with its signature 140-character format, aka tweets. Everyone was an equal on the platform, whether you were an ordinary citizen or the president of the United States. Twitter has faced many challenges since its inception in 2006, from internal conflict to struggles with profitability, and the company’s acquisition in late 2022.

From Twitter’s history to investment data, demographics, and more, this guide explores all you need to know about the company’s evolution so far. Read on for the top 60+ Twitter statistics for November 2024.

Twitter Company Data

Twitter has changed its CEO several times since the company was founded.

Until 2021, the position stayed with the original founders, specifically Williams and Dorsey, along with their long-time friend, Dick Costolo. Following Musk’s Twitter purchase, he appointed himself CEO and Chairman and exclusively controls all operations.

Musk plans to appoint a new CEO by the end of 2023.

Twitter’s top executives were fired a day after Musk’s purchase was completed.

On October 28, 2023, Elon Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives: CEO Parag Agrawak, CFO Ned Segal, and Head of Policy Vijaya Gadde.

Elon Musk shut down several Twitter international offices on November 2022.

Twitter Inc. used to have 30+ offices around the world: its headquarters in San Franciso, with other US offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Detroit, Portland, Boulder, New York, Seattle, and Santa Monica.

Twitter also had international offices in several countries, including Amsterdam, Singapore, Toronto, India, and Sao Paolo. Shortly after Musk’s takeover, several international offices were closed, including its Mumbai and New Delhi locations, which mostly employed engineers.

Twitter’s workforce was cut by at least 80% after the company was acquired.

From around 7,500 employees before the acquisition, CNBC reported that only 1, 300 employees remained at Twitter by January 2023, and only around 500 of them were engineers.

Musk refuted the claim the same month and said that Twitter still had 2,300 employees.

Twitter Investment Statistics

Crunchbase data reveals the following about Twitter’s funding history:

Twitter has raised $12.9 billion in funding between 2006 and 2022.

Twitter has closed 16 rounds of funding with 53 investors, starting with its $25,000 seed from Floodgate, a micro-VC investment firm.

On March 2021, Twitter raised $1.3 billion by offering convertible notes.

The announcement came a day after news broke that Twitter would be included in the S&P 500, sending its stock price to a three-year high. This strategic move was the company’s attempt to prevent future stock dilution.

Twitter’s last funding round was a post-equity investment in 2022.

On June 1, 2022, hedge fund firm Greenlight invested an undisclosed amount in Twitter, buying stock for $37.24 per share. Founder David Einhorn and Elon Musk have a history of animosity — Einhorn previously bet on Tesla stock crashing.

Twitter received a $2.8 billion investment from Elon Musk in 2022.

Elon Musk, through his holding company Elon Musk Revocable Trust, bought 73.5 million shares of Twitter for a total of $2.8 billion.

This made him Twitter’s biggest shareholder with a 9.2% stake – quadruple Jack Dorsey’s stake at the time. This also put Musk ahead of Vanguard Group, which was previously the largest shareholder with 8.8% of shares. A week before, Musk hinted at shaking up the entire social media industry.

Twitter’s acquisition pushed out institutional investors which had previously controlled 29.2% of Twitter.

After the acquisition, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal became the second biggest shareholder after Musk – Bin Talal was also the lead investor in Twitter’s 2011 venture funding round that brought in $300 million. Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, also joined Twitter’s new lineup of shareholders.

Twitter debuted on the NYSE on November 2013.

Twitter became a publicly-traded company on November 13, when it held its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. The company offered 70 million shares priced at $26 per share for its common stock, with another 10.5 million shares reserved for its underwriters.

The IPO was highly successful — trading opened at more than double its initial share price and eventually raised $1.8 billion for Twitter with a $24.6B valuation.

Twitter’s share price rose 73% due to fierce bidding during its IPO.

Instead of the initial $26, Twitter’s share price opened at $45.10, a 73% increase caused by intense demand.

Twitter’s choice to hold its IPO on the NYSE rather than the NASDAQ sent the latter’s stock down.

Prior to the IPO, there was speculation that Twitter would list on NASDAQ, a more tech-heavy exchange, that already featured stocks from Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google. Instead, Twitter chose the NYSE for its initial public offering – the move caused NASDAQ’s stock to fall by 1.6% when the news broke.

Twitter’s last recorded stock price was $53.70 on Thursday, October 27, 2022.

Twitter’s stock closed at $53.70 on Thursday, October 27, 2022, up 0.66% from the previous day. The stock had seen a recent upward trend, rising 27.58% over the previous 30 days prior to Musk’s buyout. However, over the preceding 12 months, the stock recorded a long-term downward trend, declining by 2.02%.

Twitter’s 2022 market cap also followed a similar trend.

On October 27, 2022, Twitter data registered a market cap of $41.094 billion. In the preceding days, the value of Twitter’s stock increased significantly by 29.34%, as developments regarding Musk’s acquisition dominated the news.

Still, the stock’s value had decreased by 5.75% over the previous 12 months, indicating a long-term downward trend for 2022.

Twitter has acquired 68 companies for a total spend of at least $930+ million.

Twitter has spent billions on 68 acquisitions In order to improve user experience, optimize the platform, and expand its monetization capabilities. Some of its biggest purchases were TellApart ($533 million), Magic Pony Technology ($150 million), and TapCommerce ($100 million).

Below are some of Twitter’s key acquisitions from 2010 to 2022:

Twitter Inc. was sold for $44 billion on October 27, 2022.

After months of controversy – including a lawsuit from Twitter’s board to force the merger after Musk initially backed out – the deal was finalized with his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion, at $54.20 per share. He borrowed $12.5 billion from Morgan Stanley, $13 billion from the bank’s financing consortium, and sold around $7 billion worth of Tesla stock to help finance the buyout.

On March 2023, Musk put the value of Twitter at only $20 billion.

In a leaked internal memo, Musk offered Twitter’s remaining employees stock grants based on the latest valuation of $20 billion – a more than 50% drop in value versus what Musk paid for the company.

Twitter Revenue Statistics

Twitter has reported a net loss every year since its IPO.

Twitter only turned a profit twice: $1.2 billion in 2018, and $1.4 billion in 2019, and from 2013 to 2017, the company reported a total loss of more than $2 billion.

Twitter hit its highest net loss in 2020.

Despite 2019 being a profitable year for the company, Twitter’s financials were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic so in 2020, Twitter reported a net loss of $1.135 billion.

Twitter’s net loss in 2021 was $221.4 million.

Twitter continued its negative streak into 2-21, posting a net loss of $221.4.

Moody’s cut Twitter’s credit to B1 after Musk bought the company.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Twitter’s credit to B1 after the buyout was finalized. The B1 rating is considered “speculative” or “junk” grade, indicating a relatively high risk of default on debt payments. Moody’s cited “governance” as one of the major drivers for Twitter’s credit downgrade.

Twitter’s revenue decreased by 40% after advertisers pulled out post-buyout.

Within a month of Twitter’s acquisition by Musk, 50 of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers pulled out of the company, resulting in a 40% loss in daily revenue. These 50 advertisers had spent a cumulative $2 billion since 2020 on Twitter ads – in 2022 alone, they spent $750 million.

Up to February 2023, Twitter had lost 600+ more advertisers.

According to CNN, over half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers stopped their ad spending on the platform, including:

• Unilever
• Coca-Cola
• Jeep
• Merck
• Wells Fargo

Twitter’s ad revenue further dropped by 60% to $48 million from around $127 million.

Twitter Timeline & History 

Twitter began as a side project of Odeo, a podcasting platform founded by Evan Williams, Noah Glass, and Biz Stone, in early 2005.

Apple adds podcasting to iTunes in June of that year. Unable to compete, Odeo starts holding daily hackathons among its 14 employees to redefine its direction.

One of Odeo’s then-engineers, Jack Dorsey, proposes a service where people can use SMSs to broadcast statuses to their friends – eventually leading to the birth of Twitter.

Below are notable events throughout Twitter’s history since then:

• 2006: Twitter is founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, and officially launched to the public in July. Seeing Twitter’s potential, Williams and the team form Obvious Corporation after buying back Odeo and its assets (including Twitter) from shareholders and investors.
• 2007: Twitter is a hit at SXSW and triples its traffic to 60,000. The company becomes its own entity with Dorsey as CEO and raises $5 million in Series A funding. The now-iconic hashtag (#) makes its debut.
• 2008: Twitter raises $15 million in Series B funding. Jack Dorsey steps down as CEO, replaced by Evan Williams.
• 2009:  Twitter closes its Series D funding at $100 million with a $900 million valuation. The retweet feature is added and Twitter rolls out its verification program after being sued over the impersonation of unauthorized accounts.
• 2010: Dick Costolo becomes Twitter’s CEO as Evan Williams steps down to focus on Twitter’s product development. Twitter starts allowing advertising via Promoted Tweets.
• 2011: Twitter holds another funding round, this time raising $800 million at a valuation of $8 billion. The website is overhauled — the Home, Connect, and Discover tabs are added, along with a redesigned timeline.
• 2012: Twitter hits 200 million monthly active users (MAU). The company acquires Vine, a short-form video app.
• 2013: Twitter debuts on the NYSE as TWTR, raising $1.8 billion from its initial public offering.

• 2014: Twitter acquires several companies: TapCommerce, SnappyTV, and Mitro. The platform gets fortified with new anti-harassment tools.
• 2015: Twitter acquires Periscope, a live video streaming startup. Google officially adds tweets to its search results on mobile. CEO Dick Costolo steps down, and co-founder Jack Dorsey returns to Twitter as its interim CEO.
• 2016: Twitter acquires a neural network and machine learning company, Magic Pony Technology. Vine’s mobile app is discontinued, and high-level executives Adam Bain (COO), Adam Messinger (CTO), and Josh McFarland (VP of Product) depart from the company.
• 2017: Twitter doubles its 140-character limit to 280 characters. Twitter Lite is introduced to optimize the app’s mobile experience.
• 2018: Twitter becomes profitable for the first time with a $91 million profit on $732 million of revenue in Q4 – beating the $686 million estimate from business analysts. Its stock price reaches a three-year high as a result.
• 2019: Users can now attach media to quote tweets. All political and electioneering advertising is banned on Twitter.
• 2020: Twitter starts adding warning labels to tweets containing COVID-19 misinformation. CEO Jack Dorsey announces a permanent work-from-home policy for Twitter employees. Twitter suffers a massive hack, compromising high-profile accounts including then-President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, and Apple.
• 2021: In a controversial move, Twitter permanently bans President Trump’s account following the January 6th Capitol riots.
• 2022: Elon Musk acquires Twitter for $44 billion and takes it private. Shortly afterward, Musk makes himself the sole member of the board after dismissing Twitter’s Board of Directors. The acquisition is followed by widespread layoffs and controversial new policies like selling Twitter Blue verification for $8.
• 2023: The Twitter workforce gets slashed by over 80%, more advertisers pull out of the platform, and Elon Musk gets sued by more than Twitter vendors for failing to pay its bills. On April 4, 2023, court documents revealed that Twitter Inc. no longer exists and has been merged into X Corp., with Musk’s X Holdings Corp. as its parent corporation.

Twitter Product Stats

Throughout the years, Twitter’s core features have remained relatively consistent, from tweets with limited characters to users being able to interact with them through likes, retweets, and replies.

However, Twitter has added many features and updates over the years – and has also discontinued some.

Tweets

In 2006, the platform launched with a 140-character limit for all Tweets. 

There were no images, videos, links, or other features.

2007 saw the introduction of the @ symbol to allow other users to be tagged and the # so users could categorize their Tweets. 

It wasn’t until 2009 that users could embed media, allowing for photo sharing and adding videos to tweets. By 2011, usrs could finally upload their own images directly to the site, and video functionality came in 2014.

Users were able to tweet up to 280 characters after 2017.

In 2023, tweets were again expanded, with up to 4,000 characters allowed.

Videos on Twitter

After buying video-sharing platform Vine, the tool was integrated into the Twitter app. 

However, it was closed down in 2016 as the acquisition of Periscope took precedence. This app was itself wound down in March 2021 as Twitter was able to natively host video content.

Users could go live on Twitter in December 2016. 

Advertising on Twitter

Twitter launched Promoted Tweets, for businesses to advertise to users, in 2010. 

According to WebFX, the average cost-per-click on Twitter is $0.38 with the average cost-per-mille (CPM) is $6.46 per thousand impressions.

Advertising makes up more than 90% of the company’s revenue. 

It is expected that Twitter will make $9.61 billion from advertising by 2026.

Twitter Mobile App

Twitter launched its iOS app and app for Android users in May 2010. 

Twitter Lite was launched in 2017 to reduce the data used by the app in an attempt to reach out to emerging markets.

As of May 2023, the Twitter app clocked up more than 1 billion downloads on Android, while Twitter Lite had more than 10 million downloads. 

Twitter Verified

Twitter starts putting verification badges on accounts after they were sued when a celebrity was impersonated on the app.

Tony La Russa, an NFL manager, sued the social media platform in 2009 when a fake account made light of the death of two players on his team. The case was later settled out of court.

Under the new ownership, users are now able to pay for the Twitter Blue checkmark. 

Twitter Blue is a subscription service that gives users:

• A blue checkmark on their profile
• A 30-minute window to edit tweets
• Half the ads in your stream
• Tweets of up to 10,000 characters, plus bold and italics
• Longer video uploads
• SMS 2-factor authentication
• The ability to advertise on the platform

Large organizations can also pay for Verified Organizations, which verifies their main profile and affiliated profiles for $1,000 per month. Users receive a gold tick mark.

Twitter Demographics

Twitter’s user base has steadily grown every year.

In 2010, Twitter had 54 million MAU, which eventually grew to nearly 450 million in 2023.

Twitter is predicted to lose over 32.7 million users in 2024.

Twitter’s worldwide traffic also decreased in early 2023, with a 3.75% decrease in traffic between March and April 2023, along with downloads and new sign-ups. Google searchers for how to delete a Twitter account also surged during the same period.

6% of Twitter users in the US are expected to leave the platform in 2023.

Reasons cited include controversy and technical problems that have plagued Twitter since its buyout by Musk.

Officially, there are no Twitter users in China.

The state has banned Twitter since 2009, along with other external media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Google. As early as 2016, Twitter estimated that it had over 10 million users in the region who used VPNs to get around the ban.

Twitter has the largest user base in the USA.

Out of Twitter’s 436 million active users, 76.9 million are located in the US.

Data from Pew Research Center also revealed the following about these Twitter stats:

• 1 in 5 American adults use Twitter.
• Republicans are less likely to use Twitter than Democrats.
• 25% of Twitter users in the US produce 97% of all tweets.
• Twitter’s US-based users tend to be younger – 42% are under 30 years old.

Most people use Twitter to stay updated with current news and entertainment.

An equal number of Statista survey respondents in the US, 48% each, say they use Twitter for news and entertainment.

Twitter users have the widest gender gap among popular social media apps.

Twitter’s user base is predominantly male, with approximately 56.4% of users identifying as male and 43% identifying as female in 2022. The gender gap widened in January 2023, with 62.9% of Twitter users identifying as male.

Major news organizations like CBC, NBC, and NPR have left Twitter.

NPR, PBS, and CBC left Twitter on April 2023 after their accounts received the “state-affiliated media” label.

Twitter vs. Competitors Stats

Twitter ranks 15^th among social media platforms in terms of usage.

In 2022, the top 5 social media platforms in the world based on active users were:

• Facebook (2.9 billion)
• YouTube (2.5 billion)
• WhatsApp (2 billion)
• Instagram (1.5 billion)
• WeChat (1.2 billion)
• TikTok (1 billion)

Twitter landed at 15^th with 436 million active users, behind Snapchat and Pinterest.

The male-to-female ratio of users is more evenly distributed on Facebook (56.3% male, 43.7% female), Instagram (51.8% male, 48.2% female), and TikTok (51.8% male, 48.2% female) than on Twitter.

Fun Facts about Twitter

• On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet in history: “just setting up my twttr.” Over 15 years later, an NFT of the tweet was sold to blockchain entrepreneur Sina Estavi for $2.9 million worth of crypto.
• Astronaut Mike Massimo sent the first tweet from space in 2009.
• Twitter employees are called Tweeps.

FAQs

References:

• Make Use Of
• CNBC
• CNN
• Craft
• Reuters
• CNBC
• Business Today
• Crunchbase
• Crunchbase
• Reuters
• Daily Mail
• CNBC
• Bloomberg
• Fortune
• The Guardian
• The Verge
• Tech Crunch
• Finance Charts
• CNBC
• New York Times
• Barrons
• NPR
• New York Times
• The Verge
• Business Model Analyst
• Bloomberg
• NPR
• CNN
• Business Insider
• Apple
• Britannica
• Harvard Business School
• Crunchbase
• CNBC
• Crunchbase
• Crunchbase
• Tech Crunch
• Tech Crunch
• Twitter
• Cnet
• The Guardian
• Crunchbase
• Reuters
• Tech Crunch
• Business Insider
• Washington Post
• Reuters
• The Guardian
• New York Times
• Mashable
• Business Insider
• The Verge
• The Guardian
• Reuters
• Washington Post
• The Verge
• New York Times
• Fortune
• CNN
• CNN
• Search Engine Journal
• CNBC
• Court Listener
• Wired
• WebFX
• The Guardian
• Eweek
• Tech Crunch
• Play Store
• Variety
• ESPN
• DMLP
• Insider Intelligence
• Similarweb
• Business Insider
• Yahoo Finance
• Tech Crunch
• Statista
• Pew Research Center
• Statista
• Statista
• Statista
• Finance Online
• CNN
• Crunchbase
• Hootsuite
• The Guardian
• Nasa