Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in fall 2022, the market for Twitter alternatives has been saturated with potential competitors, from smaller startups to open source apps to well-funded projects like Instagram’s Threads. But there’s an overlooked Twitter/X alternative that’s growing right before our eyes: LinkedIn. In March, LinkedIn’s web traffic rose 10.6% year-over-year, compared to a 15.2% decline for X, according to traffic analytics data from digital intelligence platform SimilarWeb.
Compared to November 2022 – right after Musk took over Twitter – X’s web traffic is down 10%, while LinkedIn’s is up 18%.
In March, Twitter/X had 727.6 million (deduplicated) unique visitors worldwide, down 7.5% year-over-year. LinkedIn had a much smaller total number – 269.2 million – but that number increased 11.1% year-over-year, Similarweb said.
Additionally, the company noted that LinkedIn’s global Android app usage has increased 14% since November 2022 (as of March), while X has decreased 20%.
However, another source of app data, Appfigures, isn’t seeing the same trend on mobile devices. Its data shows that LinkedIn’s monthly downloads increased 10% year over year, while X’s fell 24% – but Appfigures attributes this decline to Twitter’s rebranding to X, rather than other consumer behavior. LinkedIn’s average downloads remained consistent before and after Musk’s Twitter acquisition, the company said.
Still, given that people work on their desktops and laptops during the day, it makes sense that some business people might have shifted some of their web usage from X to LinkedIn due to Twitter’s shift.
Now that features like games (launched today) and short-form videos are available on LinkedIn, it’s clear that the social network’s owner, Microsoft, is hoping to capture the attention and interest of users who previously connected through Twitter – and especially the younger Generation Z audience.
The strategy seems to be working. As Appfigures also points out, LinkedIn’s mobile app on both iOS and Android earns more than X and Snapchat combined.
This is not a direct comparison as LinkedIn’s subscriptions are more expensive, starting at $29.99/month and going up to $69.99/month in the app stores. Snapchat Plus monthly subscriptions, on the other hand, only cost $3.99 per month or $29.99 per year.
Photo credit: App characters
In other words, LinkedIn doesn’t need to sell as many subscriptions to grow its revenue — and it’s never had trouble outperforming X or Snapchat on mobile.
However, Appfigures notes that LinkedIn’s mobile app revenue grew quickly from $20 million in the first quarter of 2021 to $91 million in the first quarter of 2023. With app revenue of $119 million in the first quarter of 2024, the company has now achieved its largest quarter ever.
By comparison, X and Snapchat generated $23 million and $67 million, respectively, in the first quarter, for a combined $90 million – or less than LinkedIn.