Over the previous week or so, each Elon and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have supplied imprecise statements on sure parts, which has led to media hypothesis, a few of it incorrect, or criticism the place it could be unwarranted.

Like, for instance, Elon alluding to X’s plan to cost customers “a small month-to-month cost” to entry X, with a purpose to fight bots. That sparked widespread experiences that X will quickly cost all customers, which isn’t precisely what Musk stated, however to ensure that his bot-battling plan to be efficient, he would successfully want the overwhelming majority of X customers to pay.

So he didn’t say it, however he form of did, whereas Musk has additionally hinted at this risk prior to now.

An official comms group may have clarified this right away, however with a press e mail that provides you an computerized “We’ll get again to you quickly” response, media shops are left to take a position, which logically sparked a flood of “X is planning to cost all customers” headlines.

Yaccarino’s weird Code Convention interview this week, in the meantime, left folks with a heap of questions, which Yaccarino appeared unwilling, or not sure find out how to reply. 

What number of each day energetic customers does X have? What number of month-to-month customers? Is hate speech declining? All of those are numbers that you’d assume Yaccarino would have readily available, whereas the query of whether or not X is definitely planning to cost all customers additionally went unanswered, with Yaccarino seemingly not sure what Musk had introduced on this.

Which suggests, once more, that it’s at the least been mentioned, however as a substitute of offering any readability or official stance, X was criticized as soon as once more, with Yaccarino herself now within the firing line for seemingly being, as famous within the interview, “CEO in title solely.”

As a substitute, Yaccarino randomly posted some official stats and notes on X over the next days.

Which, in itself, additional confused issues, as a result of this stat straight contradicts what Musk introduced the earlier week, when he stated X is seeing 200 million posts per day.

For readability, Musk stated that:  

“There are 500 million, um, 550 million month-to-month customers, now going to perhaps 600 million month-to-month customers, and any given day there’s on the order of 100 to 200 million posts to the system.”

Elon did be aware that the quantity he shared was minus re-posts. However does that imply that there are 300 million re-posts per day? Looks like lots, however perhaps that’s appropriate. 

We don’t know, after all, as a result of we don’t have anybody to ask, so once more, it’s left to hypothesis, and infrequently criticism, or at least, skepticism round X’s method.

Which appeared to be a part of what irked Yaccarino in her interview, that the media was targeted on the previous, that it was hyper-focused on metrics, whereas lacking the larger image that X is treading solely new floor, and is making wonderful progress on this radical new course.

Besides, it’s not.

X has ambitions to grow to be an entire new platform, which facilitates extra video engagement, funds in-stream, buying, banking, and extra. That’s Elon’s “all the pieces app” plan, however so far, virtually the entire improvements that X has provide you with, which Yaccarino was so eager to focus on, have truly been previous tasks that the earlier Twitter group had developed, and that the remaining X crew has merely pushed out, clearing its previous growth shelf.

Group Notes has been in growth since 2021, Twitter has had live-streaming in-app since 2016, Twitter Blue was already being offered as a subscription bundle, they simply added verification into the combo, then modified the title. 

When it comes to precise, start-to-finish, large-scale updates to the app, the X group hasn’t completed a lot in any respect. Which is sensible, provided that they’re now working with a a lot, a lot smaller dev group, which can be arising towards code variations and mismatches which can be making such updates more and more tough. 

It’s very exhausting, for instance, for the X group to do away with all of the chook references within the app, which it could like to do to compete its X re-brand. It’s very tough for X to roll out large-scale video streaming updates, as a result of it continuously must replace a number of layers of code, on a number of servers. 

It is sensible that that is tough to navigate, and on this respect, the X group is unquestionably making progress. But it surely’s not innovating at some astronomical fee, at the least from a customers’ perspective. The UI is just about the identical, the in-app expertise is identical as at all times. Yaccarino can’t actually expect showers of reward for the group’s progress, that are largely inside at this stage.

However once more, this might all be clarified by an official comms group that might talk X’s progress. Slightly than have Yaccarino placed on the spot, the comms group would have official stances in place, utilization stats, progress updates, all of this info could be identified, and ideally certified with knowledge, earlier than Musk or Yaccarino is put earlier than the media.

Possibly that’s not potential, given Musk’s off-the-cuff nature. Possibly that’s simply not the way in which Musk operates, as per his long-held aversion to promoting. 

It is also that that is a part of the plan, that every one of that is the media recreation in itself, with every speculated replace driving extra media protection.

If that’s the plan, it’s undoubtedly working, as X remains to be sparking a lot media consideration (together with this very submit). But it surely additionally appears damaging, the truth that the CEO and proprietor are seemingly at odds on sure parts, that its consumer numbers stay in query, that it gained’t share its personal official experiences on hate speech. 

If X has the information, why not share it, and silence the media debate? If X goes so effectively, why not again that up with the numbers on every aspect? 

Up to now, Musk has alluded to this being a component of his method, that the media frenzy, good or dangerous, is definitely good for enterprise.

Possibly that’s it, and it doesn’t want a comms division. But it surely does seem to be a number of the confusion across the app may simply be addressed. The truth that it’s not means that the precise numbers are not so good as X retains saying.