MrBeast posts first video on X and gets Elon Musk boost! Will it bolster X's video-first strategy?

YouTuber MrBeast just bolstered Elon Musk-led X platform's ambitions to become a video-first platform by posting his first one there. Musk is even promoting it.

MrBeast posted his first video on X recently, stating that it was just a test to check the ad revenue it would generate on the platform. (AFP)

Ever since he took over X (formerly Twitter), billionaire Elon Musk has implemented a myriad of changes on the microblogging platform. It started with mass layoffs which saw the reduction in over 80 percent of X's workforce. Then, Musk stopped legacy verification and brought out Twitter Blue, following which Larry the Bird was phased out and Twitter was officially rebranded to X. All these changes have been introduced in a bid to make it a super app that can compete with China's WeChat, offering services such as audio, video, messaging, and potentially payments and banking. However, that isn't attracting advertisers on the platform, even though X's latest move involves becoming a “video-first platform”. Know all about it.

X video-first platform strategy gets MrBeast booster

X has been encouraging content creators to post more long-form video content on the microblogging platform. One of the first to do it was Tucker Carlson, the former political talk show on Fox News. After Carlson's contract was terminated by Fox News, he began hosting his show ‘Tucker' on X which has attracted tens of millions of viewers. However, this hasn't helped drive advertisers with big companies such as Apple, Disney, and Paramount slashing their ad-spending on X.

Now, YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, popularly known as MrBeast, has posted his first-ever video on X, and it could be like a shot in the arm for the microblogging platform. It has even got Elon Musk promoting it! Notably, earlier, MrBeast had snubbed X and refused to upload videos there as he did not expect much revenue from it.

Posting his first video, MrBeast wrote, “I'm curious how much ad revenue a video on X would make so I'm reuploading this to test it. Will share ad rev next week”. Promoting the video, X chief Elon Musk wrote, “First MrBeast video posted directly on 𝕏!”

X has said that it has become a video-first platform. In a recent blog post, it was announced, “X is now a video-first platform, with people watching video in 8 out of 10 user sessions.” Bolstering these ambitions, X had also launched Immersive Video, a new surface targeting GenZ, and the platform claims it is already showing results, with 100 million daily users. Whether that is enough growth to appease angry advertisers is still unclear even as X looks to recover from the various body-blows delivered by its owner since it was acquired.

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