Elon Musk, a 50-year-old serial entrepreneur, has charmed the world with his business antics since breaking onto the Silicon Valley scene more than 20 years ago. He invested his money in a new rocket firm called SpaceX, which he hoped would be a less expensive competitor to NASA, and a new electric car company called Tesla, where he served as board chairman before taking the helm as CEO in 2008.
In an unusually humble note on the website on Thursday, Mr. Musk addressed potential advertisers. He claimed to have purchased Twitter to "attempt to serve humanity" and to create "a digital town square for civilization" in it. He also acknowledged the possibility that his mission might not succeed.
He appears to be sticking, at least temporarily, with Twitter's digital advertising business model as he directly addressed individuals who advertise on the platform. Yet, as the global economic slowdown hits and businesses find themselves with less money to spend on marketing, income is beginning to decline for titans like Facebook and Alphabet that own companies like Meta and Google.
With Elon Musk's $44 billion buyout, a prognosis claims that over 30 million users will leave Twitter over the next two years as worries about technical problems and the spread of hateful content grow.
More than 32 million monthly users worldwide are expected to decrease by about 4% in 2019 and 5% in 2024, marking the first annual decreases forecasted by market research firm Insider Intelligence since it started monitoring the social media platform in 2008.
According to the estimate, Twitter's biggest market, the US, will lose 8.2 million more users over the next two years than any other nation. As Twitter grows "more unreliable and less enjoyable," it is predicted that US user numbers will decline to 50.5 million by the end of 2024, the lowest level since 2014. In the UK, Twitter will lose roughly 1.6 million users over the next two years, to a base of 12.6 million, Insider Intelligence estimated.
Moments before a scheduled meeting with the company on December 12, 2022, Twitter abruptly disbanded its trust and safety council, an advisory group of nearly 100 independent civil rights, human rights, and other organizations that the company formed in 2016. The group was established to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm, and other issues on the platform.
The world's richest man endured a 10-minute chorus of jeers from an audience of 18,000 on Sunday night as he joined the comedian Dave Chappelle on stage in San Francisco, summing up the unpopularity of the takeover by Musk, who has sacked thousands of staff and warned those who remain they must work long hours at high intensity.
Employee tweets claim that "Twitter will not last through the weekend" as access to all business buildings has been restricted following Elon Musk's "very hardcore" control of the company.
All employees were asked to answer "yes" on a Google Form whether they wished to stay for the new Twitter 2.0 before the deadline of 5 PM ET on November 17. Hundreds of workers began writing farewell comments on the business' Slack channel as soon as the deadline arrived. "I'm not clicking the button" and "my watch ends with Twitter 1.0" were two messages. Twitter 2.0 is not something I'm interested in.
Before the request on Thursday, the company reportedly had about 2,900 employees left. Following his takeover of the company, Musk fired half of the 7,500-person workforce. Musk had a delusional belief that the staff would damage the business as the pressure mounted. An urgent decision was made, and an unsigned email was issued to the team informing them that badge access was suspended "effective immediately" until Monday.
Concerns about the corporation and whether the platform would remain active have been discussed in tweets. One post stated that the Android team left Twitter, fearing the end. Twitter is awash with growing worries about the platform since limited staff access could lead to issues if there aren't engineers on the scene.
While lacking the chance to evaluate their separation agreements, departing employees will be entitled to at least three months of pay. Yet, in a Musk tradition, those who stay will earn equity compensation, and after the company is privatized, "exceptional" performers will receive stock options.
The New York Times reports that on February 25, 2023, Twitter let go of at least 200 of its 2,000 employees. According to the NYT, the jobs affected by the redundancies included those of product managers, data scientists, and engineers who ensure the website functions properly.
Affected employees reportedly included Esther Crawford, Twitter's head of product management, who oversaw the implementation of a fee for account verification.
In November, Crawford tweeted a photo of herself sleeping on the floor of Twitter's offices along with the hashtag #SleepWhereYouWork as an example of Musk's aggressive management style.
After taking over the company, Musk fired around 3,750 employees, or half of its employees, and hundreds more resigned a few weeks later after the Tesla CEO insisted that employees become "hardcore" or leave. Musk claimed in December that his cost-cutting efforts had put Twitter "off the fast track to bankruptcy," but he is still working to reduce costs in 2023.