Elon Musk’s X Seeks a Partnership With Amazon

Elon Musk’s social media platform X was in conversations with Amazon to incorporate itself into the ad-buying software of the world’s largest online retailer, The Wall Street Journal reports. The proposed collaboration aimed to target small and medium-sized businesses on Amazon’s marketplace and convince them to advertise their products on X, jumping on the e-commerce giant’s large user base. According to people familiar with the matter, talks of this partnership “were preliminary and might not lead to a deal.”

The social media site lost huge brands recently as a result of controversial reports on the platform, but under CEO Linda Yaccarino, the company hopes to diversify its advertiser base, “something it has struggled to do for years.”

Many big advertisers, such as Apple and Disney, have recently fled the platform due to controversies and concerns about brand safety on the platform. So, a deal with a huge retailer like Amazon could be critical for X.

A big worry for tech companies assisting X to sell ads is content moderation. A partnership like this would require X to ensure that ads sold by Amazon don’t appear next to hate speech or other harmful and controversial content that breeches Amazon’s content policies, The Wall Street Journal explained.

The company’s goal in targeting small and mid-sized businesses is to sharpen its advertising framework, with the spotlight on direct response ads, which have historically been led by giants like Meta and Google. But now Musk wants a piece of this pie.

If Musk succeeds in materializing the partnership, small and mid-sized businesses would be able to utilize X’s platform to directly tap into Amazon’s large and diversified user base. This might sound attractive to businesses dealing with home goods and office supplies as well as others.

Whether or not things pan out, Musk’s X still faces huge hurdles. The social media platform needs to not only address content moderation but also prove the effectiveness of its advertising model to compete effectively with the likes of tech giants Meta and Google. For example, the platform’s recent deal with Google underlines its focus on exploring new avenues for growth and collaboration, Cryptopolitan reports.

The demographics on X have shifted, and with this strategy catering to small and medium-sized businesses, they will directly be responding to this shift. As major big brands pull out, there is a growing urgency for X to rethink its image and advertising offerings to appeal to a broader range of businesses.