Brands that advertise on Twitter are worried about the platform’s perceived intention to be much lighter on moderation, under its new owner Elon Musk

This has been reported as the main reason that major advertisers are pausing their campaigns. Chipotle, United Airlines, Pfizer, Audi, and General Motors are just some of the names mentioned.

And now Balenciaga has followed suit. But look at this another way. We are not saying that a lack of moderation is a major factor in the brands choosing to come off Twitter, but it may also be about the money. After all, other platforms, some younger than Twitter and some only late to adopt ecommerce, have emerged in the last 2-3 years and may offer a better return for the brand advertising dollar.

Balenciaga in particular has had great success on TikTok. The campaign it ran last year got 23m impressions, an 18% click through rate and 25m views of the video, which led to 4.5m clicks to the home page. Gucci, now TikTok’s biggest luxury brand among Gen Z, has also made money with its viral #GucciModelChallenge.

Of course, we can’t compare like with like, and it may well be that Balenciaga and others will go back onto Twitter at some point because it performs a different task compared to other channels, but we can’t rule out the possibility that brands are coming off Twitter because it simply does not pay when compared other channels.