Elon Musk’s X Needs Creators, but They Don’t Need X

More than a year after meeting with Musk, Chaudry says X’s strategy for creators still isn’t clear. “They have to start showing us the path to building a business on the platform,” he said in an interview.

Musk pledged big paydays to creators on X, seeking to make the platform a worthy rival of sites like Google’s YouTube and ByteDance’s TikTok, where creators’ viral content attracts eyeballs and advertisers.

Last year, X launched an ad-revenue-sharing program as a key part of its efforts to attract creators. 

So far, X is still trailing well behind platforms like YouTube, TikTok and

’ Instagram as a destination for many creators, according to surveys and interviews with creators and marketers who work with them. Some creators have cited concerns about the state of X’s advertising business as a hurdle to the platform’s efforts to woo them, while others have complained about payments being inconsistent.

Many creators say X is still a long way away from becoming an important source of revenue for them. Some creators in niches like financial news have found success on the platform.

“We all still use it every day,” Chaudry said about X. But, he added, “if we’re going to post original content there, I think we need to understand the path to success.”

Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have touted the company’s push to attract creators, which is important because creators could also attract advertisers and audiences that could help X turn around its business.

X has faced declines in daily user numbers, according to third-party data, as well as reluctance from many big advertisers wary about Musk’s loosening of content rules, controversial tweets, and willingness to publicly berate brands that pull their ads from his platform. 

X said it has about 250 million daily active users on average so far this year. X also says users are spending more time on the platform, with daily active user minutes up 10% year over year. The company didn’t provide a year-over-year comparison for daily users. 

The platform said this month it has paid more than $45 million to more than 150,000 creators since its ad-revenue-sharing program began last year. The company declined to comment in response to other questions about its efforts to attract creators. 

More than three million channels participate in YouTube’s Partner Program for creators, which began in 2007, the company says. YouTube said it has paid more than $70 billion over the past three years, including ad and subscription revenues, to creators, artists and media companies.

X has been trying to recruit bigger names to create more content for its platform, as well as creators seeking to make it big for the first time. 

Musk’s tendency to act on impulse hasn’t helped. Earlier this month, Don Lemon said Musk rescinded his deal with the social-media platform because Musk wasn’t happy with an interview the former CNN host did with him. X said an agreement hadn’t been signed, and Musk retorted on X that Lemon “lacked authenticity.” Lemon later posted the interview on X.

Lemon had been one of the highest-profile names X recruited for a series of video shows, along with others, including former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. 

Some creators appreciate X’s efforts. Benny Johnson, a conservative political commentator, said in July that X had paid him $9,546 from its ad-revenue-sharing program. “Creators need to know that @elonmusk means BUSINESS supporting the creator economy,” he posted.

Last year, X welcomed former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to launch a show on the platform after Carlson’s split from the cable news network. Carlson has continued posting his show on X, though he also launched a separate subscription service late last year. Carlson said at the time that X didn’t so far have all the capabilities he wanted to run a streaming service.

One problem, some in the industry say, is that X’s program to pay creators a portion of ad revenue, from ads placed in replies to their tweets, depends on having advertisers spending big. 

“X isn’t exactly a stable or reliable platform,” said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Emarketer. “Given the state of its ad business, it’s hard to imagine it can convince most creators that it can provide them with a sustainable source of income.”

Musk has acknowledged that hurdle. “Not much we can do if advertisers boycott or reduce spend on our platform,” he posted last year about the ad-revenue payouts. Musk said in the interview with Lemon, released March 18, that almost all advertisers are coming back to X and that X’s advertising and subscription revenues are rising rapidly, without providing numbers. 

Even before Musk’s takeover, the platform formerly known as Twitter lagged behind others like YouTube in the creator economy. That market could be worth $480 billion by 2027, according to a Goldman Sachs report from last year. 

Influencer-marketing firm Aspire surveyed over 450 creators in October and found that 5% planned to use X as their primary platform in 2024.

Less than 1% of over 200 brands and marketing agencies surveyed by creator-marketing company CreatorIQ in August and September said X delivers the greatest return on investment. Instagram topped the return on investment rankings.

“Attempting to attract creators to the platform is really smart for any social-media player,” said Enberg from Emarketer. “The business model isn’t entirely clear yet, and it seems like X is throwing a lot of things at the wall and seeing what sticks,” she added.

X is also experimenting with a different model: encouraging users to pay for paywalled posts from creators. 

That approach has been successful for Jake Wujastyk, who posts stock market research on X. He has roughly 5,000 subscribers paying $10 monthly, according to a screenshot he shared with The Wall Street Journal. 

“I make most of my living off of X,” said Wujastyk, who lives in Colorado.

Wujastyk also said the platform lacks an easy way to track metrics like churn rates, which makes it hard to plan and budget. From X’s ad-revenue-sharing program, he usually makes a few hundred dollars every two weeks.

It isn’t easy for people on any platform to make a full-time living as creators. Only about 4% of global creators pull in more than $100,000 a year, according to the Goldman Sachs analysis.

In January, YouTube megastar Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, said he made $263,655 from a video that got over 156 million impressions on X. He said on X that his payout was probably higher than what most people would be able to earn because of the attention he got.

X ran a pre-roll ad before MrBeast’s video, effectively an additional kind of promotion. After questions from users, X said more creators would be given the option for that kind of promotion.

To be eligible for X’s ad-revenue-sharing program, creators must first pay for a subscription starting at $8 monthly and meet other criteria, including getting at least five million impressions on their posts within the last three months.

While it isn’t unusual for creators to have various complaints about the platforms they depend on, X faced a new round of complaints in recent weeks, with a chorus of creators complaining publicly about X pausing their ad-revenue payouts. Around 1,400 accounts joined a group on X for people trying to get their payments resumed, with some posting the hashtag #greatpause2024. 

Several creators said their issues were resolved after they appealed to X.

X says it is taking action against accounts that violate its policies, such as by spamming. “We’re looking into this and aim to do better by our creators,” Eric Farraro, an engineering director at X, said in a post in late February.

Chris Reilly, an executive editor at an investment research firm who posts on X, said he likes the platform a lot, though his payments—which are usually less than $20 every couple of weeks—were paused and reinstated twice last month. Even as a fan, he has been frustrated by the unpredictability. 

“I wouldn’t encourage people to sign up for Premium right now and try to do the ad-revenue sharing until this is all sorted out,” he said. “Fingers crossed.”

Write to Alexa Corse at alexa.corse@wsj.com