“The new service plans to compete with YouTube on smart TVs”

Kommersant FM columnist Alexander Levi talks about Project X, dedicated to video content.

Elon Musk’s social network X is preparing to launch video hosting. The start could take place as early as this week, Fortune reports, citing its sources in the company. The new service plans to compete with YouTube on smart TVs, primarily models under the Amazon and Samsung brands.

Owner X’s key vision is focused on media celebrities, Internet users and online video game streaming, the source noted. This is indirectly confirmed by the social network’s recent agreement with former CNN presenter Don Lemon, popular in the United States, to create an exclusive show. Journalist Tucker Carlson, now widely known in Russia, often publishes long videos in X.

One of the world leaders among YouTube channels, MrBeast, with an audience of over 243 million subscribers, has already tested the service and revealed the financial aspect. The blogger’s first video in X brought in income of over $250 thousand. At the same time, MrBeast called this case “a bit of a façade.” In other words, the buzz generated by a popular author’s debut on a new platform attracted more advertisers than usual.

Let me remind you that Twitter has launched apps for TVs at least three times. The very first versions appeared back in 2010 on the now defunct Google TV platform. A year later, a similar service reached Smart Hub on Samsung TVs. In 2016, after Twitter struck a deal to broadcast NFL games, the company launched video streaming apps on Apple TV, Xbox One and Amazon Fire TV.

The latest report from Edison Research found that Elon Musk’s social media usage has dropped by 30% over the past year. Major advertisers such as Disney, IBM and Apple, for example, left X en masse after several controversial statements by the owner. Meanwhile, YouTube announced in its blog that in the first nine months of last year, the number of views of short videos on connected TVs grew by more than 100%.