Can X Grow In Nigeria?
Gone are the days when legacy media could oversee large chunks of news. Before the internet changed how people consumed their media, TV, newspapers, and radio were the dominant ways people got their news.
Not only has there been a noticeable shift in this dynamic, but it’s also meant that the antiquated framework and channels of newspaper pressings and slower news cycles have been replaced by the instant news of social media and the global interconnectivity of mobile apps and digital news sources, which beam breaking news across borders within the space of a few seconds.
For example, if an Australian person traveled to Africa for an extended break back in the 1990s, they couldn’t access any news or information from back home. Nowadays, with the internet and mobile phones, Australian entertainment updates are a few swipes away. However, back then, friends or family back home might have gone weeks without hearing from them, and the news cycles operated at a much slower pace, too.
The Rise Of Social Media News
Obviously, due to the new mechanics of the media industry, those social media companies that have been able to get ahead and develop their brands as the leading names have taken a considerable chunk of the market from legacy media.
Without getting into the political mechanics of Twitter, or X, or whatever it is called, it’s become an integral news source, depending on the country. It boasts 174 million daily users, and although this figure has experienced a significant dip over the last 12 months, dropping by over 20% since Elon Musk’s takeover, 174 million daily users is not a number to be taken lightly.
X, formerly known as Twitter, is still much lower down the pecking order than other social media sites. Despite the new CEO stating that he wishes to turn X into an “everything app,” – the reality is that it’s still a social media app that deals predominantly with the news and is miles behind YouTube and Facebook’s daily user numbers – with both sites in the billions of daily users.
Growing Into The Nigerian Market
Elon Musk has many business ventures, including X, but his company, Starlink, has been making more notable waves in Nigeria than his social media company. The South African billionaire designed Starlink to provide internet connectivity and mobile phone signals to some of the world’s most remote parts.
Whether this will tie into X in the long run remains to be seen, but crunching the numbers, Nigeria could have the potential to become X’s most significant growth market. Recent statistics show around 5.7 million users, a 20% jump from 2023.
Nigeria’s population of over 200 million makes it a massive market if X can effectively inroad into it. WhatsApp and Facebook remain far more popular avenues for Nigerians looking to use social media, and they’re a more direct way for them to receive their news.
Although the company has changed hands since the Twitter ban in 2021, this is another reason why many Nigerians opt for other versions of social media. It feels like Elon’s best bet is to lay the foundations with Starlink and grow into the market by establishing his conglomerate as a communications hub within the country before using X as the hub for Nigerians looking to get their news and entertainment.
Suppose the question is whether X can increase the number of daily Nigerian users from the current range of 2.5% of the population. In that case, this number is likely to increase—but whether it can treble or quadruple over the next decade is the idea Musk will want to explore more fervently.
Final Thoughts
It’ll be a challenge to break into this market as Twitter does not have the same audience there as it does in Western countries. While it is growing, it makes up a tiny portion of social media activity. There’d have to be a serious shift in the number of people signing up and using the site actively for it to become one of Nigeria’s most prominent social media sites.
That said, the fact it has such a small market share does bode well for its potential growth prospects; it also helps that Musk has taken an active interest in investing in Nigerian infrastructure and developing Starlink so that more people in the more remote regions of the country can access the internet and mobile phone signal.
There’s no dispute that X can grow from this foundation in Nigeria. Perhaps the more intriguing question is just how much it can grow and whether it can make up any of the ground on WhatsApp or Facebook as the two primary social media platforms of choice.
While that’s the more unlikely option, there’s potential there. If Musk establishes his presence and continues chipping away with his Starlink investments, then X will undoubtedly grow in Nigeria.
