X now claims to be a "video first platform," but the app opens to a feed of pictures, not video, nor does it have a dedicated video tab, nor an easy-to-find stream of video clips.

One of several revelations from a new overview of X's roadmap for 2024, including a range of notes on the platform's development throughout 2023 and how it is setting itself up for the next stage of Elon Musk's "everything app" plan.

Which increasingly looks set to be a major challenge to enact, given declining revenue and the required pace of development with fewer dev resources on hand.

Yet that's the gamification plan, as X is to share with the world some new stats regarding its current performance on:
80 percent of user sessions consuming video, more than 100 million people a day consuming in full-screen vertical video
Users watched in December alone "130 years' worth of videos 30 minutes or longer", according to X
More than 50 million average daily views for Community Notes
Now, there are more than 350,000 communities on X and around 650,000 community posts every day.
X has paid out more than 80,000 creators till date through its ads revenue sharing program
Total ad engagements are up by 22% while total ad revenue is down by 50%. That would be some achievement considering that the app has lost 50% of its ad revenue based on Musk's controversial stances and changes at the app.

But this is what X is claiming, though both Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have made some questionable claims in the past.

Anyway, this is where X is currently placed. And with the new year now before us, X has also shared its key areas of development focus, as it looks to continue its transition away from Twitter, and into a whole new app category, all of its own.

Here's what's coming for the app
 
Payments
One of the fundamental elements of Elon's "everything app" is payments and easy, inexpensive fund transfers in the app. It's rooted in Musk's early PayPal days, which is where the "everything app" actually originated from, mainly the principle of letting people basically use the app like their bank, and all other functionality expands out from there.

In this regard, X reports it will roll out peer-to-peer payments this year "unlocking more user utility and new opportunities for commerce, and showcasing the power of living more of your life in one place.".

So, X has managed to win transmitter licenses in 14 states but has a lot in terms of securing the requirements toward enabling more finance and transactional elements. In part, that will depend on approvals from regulators, many of whom Musk has publicly lampooned in the past, so the path for X won't be easy, and even Meta, which has been trying for years to facilitate payments, hasn't been able to obtain all of the required approvals and licenses to facilitate full payments in most regions.

But Elon believes that he has the experience and vision to make this happen and it'll be interesting to see whether X is able to move to the next stage of payments in 2024.

On a related front, X today announced a new deal with Shopify which will enable Shopify merchants to showcase their products in the app.

Another step towards Elon's broader vision.
Improvements through AI
X also claims that it will look forward to the implementation of more AI solutions for improvement in ads, search tools, and much more.

X has joined the generative AI race with Grok, an AI-powered chatbot from the X conversation. But above that, X also plans to introduce the industry's best systematic improvements based on AI to refine and tailor its different elements of user experiences.

For example:

"We continue to keep showing you more relevant and important content through the enhancement of our pioneering "See Similar Posts" feature powered by xAI. What's Next The next step for this feature will be "See Dissimilar Posts," allowing users to view the content that is of interest to what they are seeing or contradictory to what they are seeing based on their past activity.

Yeah, I'm, not sure that's going to be a winner, and X's insistence that Grok is a better chatbot because it uses X's real time data, and has a "sense of humor", probably isn't going to make it a major element of the X experience.

But Elon has a grudge against OpenAI, which it once drenched in millions, then him tried to take it over as its chief. That looks like the main motivator for Grok's development, while back-end AI elements might usher in the meaningful changes to user experience, if X can get them right.

Ultimately, Elon is convinced he will be superior to anyone else at AI. And if so, perhaps X might win big.

Original Programming
But as a "video first platform" X will also require more original programming, which it's making sure of by adding new deals with former TV personalities such as Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon, Jim Rome, and others.

Twitter also tried to produce TV-like content, often without much success.

Conceptually, given Twitter/X is the best companion app for live TV discussion, that makes a lot of sense, but try as it might, Twitter could never integrate that "second-screening" behavior into its UI, even when it signed exclusive deals with a variety of major sports leagues and tried to become its own TV channel.

Although there does still seem to be potential there, and perhaps, in the age of social apps as entertainment products in themselves rather than adjunct forums for discussing other matters, X is now in a better position to realize this.

So far, its lineup of first round of headliners hasn't been terribly exciting, but each of them are cult icons in their own category, with millions of devotees.

If these early partners pan out, that could bring in more talent to the app, while X also continues to experiment with gaming broadcasts and live streams.

Ad Improvements
In addition to looking to refine its ad systems with AI, which will ideally help to maximize relevance in ad delivery, X is also looking to re-shape its ad process around video content, while also implementing more brand safety elements.

The latter would primarily be the big concern as many advertisers will pull out of X, or cut their ad spend, after Elon Musk's changes at the app.

Much of the wariness from advertisers now falls to Musk himself and his repeated public remarks on controversial matters. Musk is often ignorant and tends to jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts, which led to a string of occasions where Musk made uninformed opinions about heated topics.

And that's only going to get worse in an election year, with Musk already endorsing Republican candidates, and even trying to insert himself on certain issues. Elon has also openly declared several times that he's going to keep saying what he wants, whether it costs him money or not, but it's actually costing X, more so than Elon himself.

Essentially, X is going to have a big challenge in front of it to convince ad partners that it's a trusted, viable platform for ad spend. But if it can get more people using the app, the advertisers will come, so in full scope, the X plan could still work to boost ad intake.

There are many questions that surround Elon's X project, and many issues left unsolved that will continue to cause hassle for the app going forward; many of these new initiatives will face significant troubles as noted.

But maybe, just maybe, that genius dude, Elon, is the real deal. Maybe, that game of 4D chess some folks think he's playing will actually pay off and at some point cross some threshold, and X will once again be a viable platform.

Hard to see right now, though, as Elon continues to implement unpopular changes based on spite and angst rather than what's best for the company.

But maybe, Elon is some kind of visionary, beyond what anyone else can see.