Tesla co-founder Elon Musk suffered a flood of criticism when he bought Twitter, but his move appears to be paying off.

Many advertisers have left X and are contributing to a decline in total revenue, but we are now more profitable than before Musk took over.

The company generated $5 billion in revenue in 2021. This was the last year before Musk took over, reporting profits prior to $682 million in interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). According to To Wall Street Journal.

The company also reported that X’s 2024 revenues were more than half of its pre-two-link level, but at $2.7 billion, while EBITDA doubled before Mask took over. X reported $1.25 billion in revenue for 2024. (Related: SEC sues Elon Musk for purchasing “artificially low” Twitter stock. His critics agreed he overpayed.)

The company brings in less total money, but at least in part, it’s more profitable under musk, as there is a lower overhead from employee cuts.

The obvious success so far is in great contrast to predictions and analysis by several commentators and media outlets. When Musk bought the company for $44 billion in 2022, most critics debated his purchase.

In October 2023, economist Paul Krugman hit the Musk project and predicted that he would lead the platform into a “death spiral.”

“X, a former Twitter account, may soon provide lessons on what it takes to burst the Nexus,” Krugman wrote in the New York Times.

Washington audience columnist Dave Troy went until he suggested that Musk was intentionally destroying Twitter.

“Musk is on Twitter that Kevin McCarthy and Steve Bannon are heading towards “control” next year: we’re going to dismantle that,” Troy tweeted on November 5, 2022.

1/Musk has posted on Twitter that Kevin McCarthy and Steve Bannon intend to be an “administrative state” next year. I’ll dismantle it.

Dorsey said, “Elon is a singular solution that I trust.” Twitter has been turned into a “protocol” and is no longer a “company.” This is happening very visibly.

– Davetroy (@davetroy) November 5th, 2022

British publications, Guardian, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich Blamed Musk’s decision to fire more than 6,000 employees for the majority of Twitter’s workforce.

“Without this knowledge and talent, Twitter is a shell (office buildings, some patents, brands) and has no ability to improve or maintain its services,” he writes. “It’s unlikely to fail at once, but bugs and glitches are mounted, the quality of what is offered is worse, hateful tweets surge, and customers and advertisers get away.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk will interview him upon arrival at the Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) conference held in Stavanger, Norway on August 29, 2022. It is linked to the energy, oil and gas sectors both in Norway and internationally. (Photo by Carina Johansen/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

“Elon Musk was a disaster for Twitter.” I wrote Vanity Fair.

The Atlantic Ocean also saysdisaster. ”

Wall Street Journal criticizing the structure of the loans Musk took from seven major banks to fund his purchases I was called Contract: “The worst bank acquisition since the financial crisis.”

Ben Collins, a former NBC news reporter and current CEO of the satirical website The Onion, speculated that the website could be completely dark.

“It’s already failed,” he said. I said Forbes. “There’s no sustainable way to make money right now. Are you literally stopping being a website at some point? I’m not sure, but it’s fine.”

X is still a website.

The future looks bright for X as advertisers return after a rocky start.

Apple, which publicly announced in 2023 that it wasn’t promoting it on its platform, is considering a comeback. According to To Wall Street Journal.

Amazon also announced it is increasing advertising spending on its platform.