X-clusive: MrBeast Uploads First Dedicated Video to Elon Musk-Owned Platform

Jimmy Donaldson—better known by his social media alias "MrBeast"—has uploaded his very first exclusive video on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, after weeks and years of complicated talks with the platform's owner, Elon Musk.

Time reported that Musk retweeted Donaldson's video after it went live on X on Tuesday, January 16. The tweet itself racked up over 36 million views by Tuesday afternoon.

MrBeast currently has 25.3 million followers on X and 231 million subscribers on YouTube.

Prior to the MrBeast video, Musk was looking for creators to exclusively release their content on X in exchange for an increase in platform rewards.

Twitter's Video Service Overhaul

Since Musk took over what was once called Twitter in 2022, he envisioned transforming the platform into what he called the "everything app," or a collection of services users could turn to on their smartphones.

This also meant that Musk was making what later became X more competitive with Google's YouTube, which currently is the global leader in online videos.

This month, the platform also announced a selection of new shows, including a partnership with former CNN presenter Don Lemon.

However, given the numerous hiccups X experienced for most of 2023—including content moderation issues and several incidents where advertisers left the platform, prompting Musk to retort last November—it was still struggling to catch up with Meta's Facebook.

Tags

Twitter, X, Elon Musk, Social media, Youtube