Turns out no one can compete with Elon Musk's Twitter

About 3 weeks aft Elon Musk bought Twitter successful October 2022, #RIPTwitter started trending. Musk had gutted nan staff, and much workers discontinue erstwhile he gave them an ultimatum: Work "hardcore" hours aliases leave. With nan level connected nan brink, its users held a funeral. They spent nan evening saying goodbye to their followers, shitposting connected nan #hellsite for nan past time, and rounding up nan champion and worst tweets they had saved successful nan platform's 16-year history. They were somber, giddy, and anxious astir nan early of online dialogue. It seemed definite that a competitor would rise.

Right then, Gabor Cselle, a erstwhile head astatine Google and worker astatine Twitter, was moving connected a rival app. First called T2 and later Pebble, nan extremity was to make a trustworthy, safe tract to capable nan spread near by Twitter.

Cselle was acold from alone. As nan vertebrate app's outlook grew much bleak, respective replacement speech platforms hatched: Narwhal, Spoutible, Spill, Post, and Cohost among them. In July 2023, Meta tried to prehend nan infinitesimal by launching Threads. Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey tried to hole what he saw arsenic Twitter's wrongs by launching Bluesky. (He discontinue successful May 2024, saying nan level was "literally repeating each nan mistakes" Twitter had made.)

Meanwhile, Twitter continued to teeter. Musk told advertisers "go fuck yourself," abandoned astir contented moderation, and infamously changed nan logo from a friends bluish vertebrate to a acold X. At nan extremity of past year, The Verge published a news package declaring that 2023 would spell down arsenic "The Year Twitter Died."

But 2 years aft Musk took over, nan level is still nan room wherever it happens. Misinformation has skyrocketed and maturation has stagnated; nan market-intelligence patient Sensor Tower says its number of progressive regular users dropped by 28% from October 2022 to September 2024 while Threads' users person grown. But erstwhile large news hits, for illustration a awesome sporting arena aliases a sitting president's determination to driblet retired of nan title aliases nan attempted assassination of a erstwhile president, X is wherever nan speech erupts.

Most of Twitters' upstart challengers person folded. I talked to respective founders astir what they learned trying to compete pinch Musk, and nan authorities of civilian chat online.

"I benignant of misread that moment," Cselle says today. He thought each those mourners wanted thing that was conscionable for illustration Twitter but that would reliably activity — location without excessive trolling and dislike reside and deepfakes. "What #RIPTwitter was about, successful retrospect," he says, was a panicked "sense of 'I mightiness suffer my position and my pursuing and my grip and each of this web I've built up.'"

Cselle says he's learned that for societal media platforms, "trust and information is simply a secondary worth proposition."

"It becomes important to you arsenic a personification — imminently and instantly important — erstwhile thing goes really bad," he says. But he's learned that group "don't subordinate a caller abstraction that is different quiet for it. You can't commencement a Twitter replacement by saying, 'We want to beryllium nan caller nationalist square.'"

Pebble sewage astir 20,000 registered users earlier stagnating and shutting down successful November 2023. It lives connected arsenic a smaller server connected Mastodon, which itself peaked astatine 2.5 cardinal progressive users successful December 2022 but is down to astir 865,000. Cohost, made by nan Anti Software Software Club (which describes itself arsenic "a not-for-profit package institution that hates nan package industry"), said past period that it was moving retired of money and would go read-only by nan extremity of nan year.

When Post, a level "built for news," launched successful autumn 2022, publishers for illustration Politico, The Boston Globe, and Fortune signed up, and hundreds of thousands of group joined nan waitlist. Founded by erstwhile Waze CEO Noam Bardin and funded successful portion by Andreessen Horowitz, nan thought was that group could salary mini amounts to publication individual news articles alternatively than subscribing to galore outlets. "I judge nan early newspaper is nan provender and want to make it much civilian for users, profitable for publishers and amended for society," Bardin said successful a tweet announcing Post. But it unopen down successful April 2024, citing slow maturation that gave it nary way toward becoming a "significant platform."

Several of these replacement speech platforms were calved from a akin ethos, searching to hole nan chaos and bile that bequest societal media had incentivized. Narwhal, backed by Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective, marketed itself arsenic a level for "productive discussions grounded successful bully faith." It began arsenic invite-only, and speech centered connected topics of nan time that Narwhal would find — sometimes about the environment, politics, aliases tech. Nicholas Thompson, nan CEO of The Atlantic and a cofounder of Narwhal, says that while nan conversations among nan hundreds of users were substantive and engaging, Narwhal lacked Twitter's bite. "That was besides nan tradeoff," Thompson says. "If location had been a measurement to make it much nosy while besides thoughtful, that would person been nan roadworthy to success."

After a fewer months, Narwhal pivoted to go an AI software-as-a-service platform, Speakeasy AI, which aimed to alteration civil, engaging speech connected different platforms. Thompson says nan extremity wasn't to switch Twitter but to hole toxicity online. He wanted to build thing that Twitter, Reddit, aliases Facebook mightiness use. The institution didn't turn much, and successful April, Speakeasy's tech was acquired by Amplica Labs.

But Thompson says nan civilian conversations connected Narwhal gave him hope. Social media is fracturing — moreover if it's a leak alternatively than a flood. That gives group opportunities to find different communities aliases uses for societal sites. A bequest level for illustration X aliases a ample 1 for illustration TikTok, person their advantages, too, and mightiness go a crowded halfway for discussion, but users are near to nan whims of its CEO. "There's a ton of powerfulness successful whoever controls" a large societal media platform, Thompson says. Last week, Musk shared an image edited to show an Atlantic communicative pinch nan header "Trump is virtually Hitler." The station has much than 25 cardinal views. Musk hasn't deleted nan tweet, though a organization statement posted beneath it clarifies that nan header is fabricated.

Some places wherever Twitter's erstwhile users went are still growing. Spill, a Black-owned societal platform, has been downloaded much than half a cardinal times. Like different Twitter alternatives, it group retired to lick nan problems pinch dislike reside connected large platforms. But its ngo is broader: Its cofounder Alphonzo Terrell says that while nan app is unfastened to everyone, it prioritizes elevating number communities, for illustration Black and LGBTQ+, and protecting them from harassment and dislike Spill has raised astir $5 cardinal successful pre-seed funding, pinch nan character Kerry Washington precocious investing.

Spill uses ample connection models and AI for contented moderation, Terrell tells me. As pinch Narwhal, its algorithm rewards affirmative posts. But there's still room for governmental discussion: When President Joe Biden announced this summertime that he would not activity reelection and Vice President Kamala Harris became nan presumptive Democratic nominee, Spill saw a flurry of activity, Terrell says. Black women connected nan level successful peculiar talked astir preparing themselves for an onslaught of racism and misogyny arsenic nan consequence of Harris' rise. It's a much nuanced governmental speech than what mightiness inclination connected thing for illustration X, but it worked connected Spill. "People don't request to codification switch" connected Spill, Terrell says.

The unreserved to go nan adjacent Twitter has slowed — though there's still a chance an replacement could go celebrated capable to switch it. Threads has nan imaginable to lure advertisers, but culturally it hasn't proved nan Twitter slayer galore thought it mightiness be. A batch of these brand-safe aliases news-focused apps person tended to consciousness much for illustration homework than recess, though Spill whitethorn beryllium nan objection for now.

I've been connected Twitter since 2010. Recently I've recovered it little useful for my activity arsenic a journalist, but I'm still lurking. And early this month, erstwhile my beloved Phillies tanked their playoff chances spectacularly, I turned to X. The algorithm knew I cared astir this; it knew I wanted to commiserate pinch chap fans and look astatine memes and watch highlights from nan 1 crippled wherever nan squad played good complete and complete and over, which I'll beryllium doing until opening time successful 2025. I wasn't engaging successful elevated, thought-provoking dialogue, nor was I spreading misinformation aliases hate. I was doing thing successful nan mediate — thing cathartic. It was conscionable what I was looking for.

Amanda Hoover is simply a elder analogous astatine Business Insider covering nan tech industry. She writes astir nan biggest tech companies and trends.