Look, I don’t know the way correct a measure of utilization “whole consumer seconds” is, although many builders have dismissed this as a deceptive stat, and never as indicative nor invaluable as a extra widespread determine, like lively customers.

Regardless, X proprietor Elon Musk firmly believes that that is essentially the most correct indicator of engagement, and immediately, he’s shared the newest replace on X’s lively consumer seconds, which he claims exhibits important will increase within the app’s recognition.

Okay, let’s simply break this down and dig into what these numbers truly imply, throughout the context of utilization stats that persons are extra acquainted with.

First off, when it comes to whole consumer seconds, X’s common during the last week is 360.7 billion seconds per day. That’s the entire time that customers spent within the app, which, on the face of it, is an unimaginable period of time.

However breaking that down, 360.7b consumer seconds equates to six.01b whole minutes per day. X claims to have 253 million day by day customers finally verify, so for those who divide the whole minutes by whole customers, that’s a median of 23.8 minutes per day spent, per consumer, within the app each day.

Which isn’t near what X reported again in October, when it stated that customers have been spending a median of 32 minutes per day within the app, and decrease than what the previous Twitter staff was reportedly seeing, at half-hour per day per consumer. So whereas the topline numbers look spectacular, at many billions of seconds, the precise time spent per consumer is seemingly declining, not rising, as Musk claims.

Although if common consumer seconds are rising, then conversely, the whole variety of customers should be in decline. X could also be proper in reporting that customers are spending 32 minutes per day within the app, however for that to be true, that might imply that X is now solely serving 185 million customers per day, a drop of 68 million customers.

So both X is seeing much less utilization per consumer than it claims, or it’s serving fewer customers general.

Or it’s simply utilizing lively consumer seconds as a selective measurement, and over the previous week, the numbers have elevated. However general, they’re not rising over time.

It’s additionally fascinating to notice the break up between internet and cell customers in these stats, with primarily based on this, exhibits 88.55% of X customers are logging in through cell machine, with most, presumably, accessing the platform through the app.

Which signifies that this stat, which Musk has additionally shared a number of occasions:

Can also be largely irrelevant, as a result of the measurement above relies on internet visitors solely (desktop and cell), and doesn’t embody app utilization. So X posts, that are listed by Google, get extra Search traction than Instagram content material, which is simply obtainable to Google’s crawlers in restricted capability.

Basically, this chart is evaluating some 11% of X’s whole visitors in opposition to a tiny fraction of Instagram’s general utilization numbers, as a result of like X, most of IG’s utilization is performed within the app, not from customers logging in on the internet. So the broader suggestion that X is thrashing Instagram in utilization is completely flawed.

With this in thoughts, it’s arduous to differentiate whether or not Musk is being intentionally misleading, or he genuinely doesn’t perceive the numbers earlier than him. Each of those charts will not be nice indicators for X, with the second exhibiting that, one way or the other, IG was as soon as beating it in internet visitors, and stays comparatively shut, regardless of, as famous, IG posts not being absolutely listed by Google.

In essence, the highest chart exhibits that X is both dropping lively customers, or preserving them round for much less time. Which can be true of one other stat that X has shared, that it’s seeing 1.5 million new account sign-ups each day. If that’s true, then they aren’t sticking round, as a result of the general utilization numbers will not be rising in-step.

With out licensed oversight, it’s troublesome to place a lot belief in these figures both approach, as a result of those that X is sharing don’t replicate what Elon and Co. appear to counsel.

In the long run, the worth of the platform from a advertising and marketing perspective comes all the way down to your viewers, and the place they’re lively. In the event that they’re nonetheless partaking on X, then it ought to in all probability stay a consideration, however for those who have been searching for most attain, these numbers don’t showcase X’s increasing capability, as Elon is saying.