Can X beat YouTube? MrBeast’s ‘direct’ video may end Elon Musk’s ad exodus

Elon Musk on Monday took to social media platform X to announce YouTuber MrBeast’s first video on X directly. The video already has around 18 million views, with X’s ‘video-first’ platform expected to see success in its initial months.

After many hit-and-trail policy changes in X (formerly Twitter), the social media app is now marketing itself as a “video first” platform, giving the liberty to content creators to directly post videos on the app rather than post a video link to another platform.

The “video-first” platform idea for X is being seen as a last-ditch attempt by Elon Musk and shareholders to drive up ad revenue from the social media platform after the massive advertisers’ exodus by media giants.

Elon Musk’s X has made a hefty investment in the video space, which can allow viewers to consume content in full screen, offering a similar experience to YouTube, the leading video-sharing platform in the world.

X’s new video format Immersive Video has already garnered over 100 million daily viewers, most of whom are from Gen Z, said the social media platform. World’s leading YouTuber MrBeast recently posted his first-ever video directly on X, and it has garnered nearly 18 million views in less than five hours.

MrBeast wrote in the caption, “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,” clearly hinting that this is X’s attempt to bring back the advertisers who boycotted the platform months ago due to Elon Musk’s “antisemitic” comments sparking a controversy.

How will X Immersive Video bring back advertisers?

Ahead of the advertisement exodus by media giants, over 90 percent of the total revenue of X was driven up by ads. After media giants like Disney, Paramount and Comcast announced their boycott of X, the revenue went significantly down.

One of the main driving forces of content creators uploading their videos on YouTube is the ad revenue. If X’s Immersive Video is able to garner a similar amount of views, advertisers will be forced to come back to the platform.

With over 100 million daily users, X has features like TikTok when it comes to posting videos. While the platform was short on specifics in its blog post, it is expected to mimic the features of leading video platforms, expected to lure big content creators.