Although Twitter’s acquisition has not been finalized yet, Elon Musk continues to make plans that promise big transformations in the social network. On Tuesday (10), the billionaire announced plans to reactivate the account on the platform of former President Donald Trump, who was banned last year due to the invasion of the Capitol.
In the presentation presented to the investor, New York Times (NYT) gained reach, Musk also signaled other changes on Twitter.
Layoffs and new hires, 931 million users, and a mysterious “Project X” were cited by the world’s richest man as part of their plan to change the face of the social network as we know it.
Trump with Elon Musk can get his Twitter account back
Musk may be on the right track, as interest in working at Twitter has skyrocketed since he offered to become the new owner of the platform.
On the other hand, the current employees of the company are skeptical and not very excited about the future of the social network under the command of the billionaire. And Trump is a reason for that.
since it was announced Elon Musk’s acquisition of TwitterDescribing himself as an “advocate for free speech”, he was expected to speak at some point about Donald Trump being kicked off the platform.
After the Capitol invasion by supporters of the former US president, Twitter concluded that Trump violated social networking rules by sending messages promoting violence that culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack.
After Twitter, other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram banned Trump for the same reason.
During the newspaper’s participation in the “Future of the Car” conference, Financial TimesThis week, Musk called his decision to fire the politician from Twitter a “mistake”.
“I don’t think it’s right to ban Donald Trump, I think it was a mistake. I would undo the permanent ban…
But that’s my opinion and I want to be clear Jack Dorsey shares that view, we shouldn’t have permanent bans.”
Dorsey is the co-founder of Twitter and stepped down as the company’s CEO in December. On the platform, the billionaire said that he agreed with the Tesla owner’s statements that there should be no permanent bans on the social network.
“There are exceptions… but usually permanent bans are our failing and useless.”
I agree. There are exceptions (CSE, illegal conduct, spam or network manipulation etc.) but usually permanent bans are our failure and it won’t work, after the fact I wrote here (and called for a flexible social media protocol) : https://t.co/ fQ9KnrCQGX
— jack⚡️ (@jack) 10 May 2022
“Banning Trump from Twitter did not kill Trump’s voice, it will raise his voice among the right, and therefore morally wrong and utterly stupid,” Musk said at the event. Financial Times.
The billionaire admitted that his Twitter acquisition and Trump’s return to the social network are still unidentified.
“I’ll say I don’t have Twitter yet, so that’s definitely not going to happen, because what if I don’t have Twitter?”
Despite mobilizing for his triumphant return to Twitter, Trump has so far been less interested in Elon Musk’s offer.
in an interview with Fox News Last month, the former president said he wasn’t considering returning to the social network, even with its new owner, because he wanted to be on his own, Truth Social.
“I’m not going to Twitter, I’m going to be on Truth,” Trump told the network hours before the official announcement of the acquisition. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’s going to make improvements to Twitter and he’s a nice guy, but I’m staying with Truth.”
Truth Social was launched in early March and has since been accumulating issues and a number of users trying to use it.
Trump said Twitter “became very frustrating because conservatives were fired or left the platform when I left”.
It was boring because there was no interaction,” he said. “The interaction at Truth was incredible.”
Trump declined to comment on whether he had been in contact with Musk recently, but a source told Fox News they “have a very good relationship and are friends.”
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Elon Musk’s Twitter Plans
Newspaper New York Times (NYT) has given access to a presentation Elon Musk made to Twitter investors earlier this month, where he announced some of his plans and financial goals for the platform if the acquisition is complete.
The billionaire said Twitter wants to increase its annual revenue fivefold by 2028, from $5 billion last year to $26.4 billion.
In addition, Musk wants to reduce Twitter’s dependence on advertising. Under his direction, ad revenue would fall from nearly 90% in 2020 to 45% of the total.
His estimate is that by 2028, $12 billion will be earned from ads on Twitter. Subscriptions are expected to reach approximately $10 billion of the company’s revenue.
The Tesla owner also wants to deal with the platform’s payments business, which is currently reduced to purchases and donations made by fans to influencers. In the document he presented to investors, Musk says that this service will bring $ 15 million to Twitter by 2023.
The forecast for 2028 is to grow to approximately US$1.3 billion. However, Twitter’s new owner did not specify how he plans to achieve that goal.
But the NYT said there was speculation that it would bring new payment features to the platform, as he has experience in the field as the founder of online financial service PayPal.
Another ambitious goal announced by Elon Musk is a real new member boom for the social network: it aims to reach 931 million users by 2028.
According to the newspaper, Musk predicts that the total number of Twitter users, which was 217 million at the end of last year, will reach 600 million in 2025 and reach almost a billion dollars in six years.
“Most of this growth will come from Twitter’s ad-supported businesses, including Twitter Blue, where users pay $3 a month to customize their in-app experience.
According to the presentation, Musk expects 69 million Twitter Blue users by 2025 and 159 million Twitter Blue users by 2028.”
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More plans: layoffs and the mysterious ‘Project X’
Also, according to the document obtained by the NYT, Elon Musk is working on a mysterious “Project X” and promises 104 million subscribers by 2028.
The new product has been kept secret, but according to the article, Musk hinted on Twitter that it could be an ad-free experience.
“Product X Subscribers It appears at the rollout in 2023 and is expected to have 9 million users in its first year.
While that plan hasn’t been revealed, another one no longer seems to be a secret: Elon Musk plans to fire Twitter employees and hire new professionals. He predicts that by 2025 the company will have 11,072 employees – more than 3,500 hires in addition to about 7,500 today.
“Musk will likely lay off employees as part of his acquisition before bringing in new engineering talent,” said one person familiar with the situation.
Share-based compensation costs are also expected to rise from $914 million in 2022 to just over $3 billion in 2028.
Part of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover deal includes adding $13 billion in debt. But that doesn’t scare the new owner, as he expects to repay his debt as free cash flow – the company’s current balance after making all payments – will rise to $3.2 billion by 2025, according to the document.
Musk expects to reach $9.4 billion by 2028, even as operating expenses and costs increase as well.
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Interest in working at Twitter is growing, but current employees are skeptical
Daniel Zhao, a senior economist and data scientist at employment platform Glassdoor, posted on Twitter that interest in jobs at the social media company rose 263% between April 24 and April 30 – by which time the board had already accepted the takeover offer. Elon Musk.
Magazine luckZhao explained that interest is defined by average daily clicks on Twitter job postings on the platform, compared to average daily clicks in March 2022 before Musk’s plans for the platform company were released.
Some info: With the acceptance of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover offer, interest in Twitter businesses on Glassdoor increased 263 percent (4/24-4/30) last week compared to March 2022.
— Daniel Zhao (@DanielBZhao) May 5, 2022
“Tell me what you will about Elon, he has a huge fan base that is excited to work for him,” Zhao said. “As a CEO, I’m much more likely to benefit from that appeal than being an owner.”
On the social network, Elon Musk commented on the data presented by the economist on Glassdoor.
“If the Twitter acquisition is complete, the company will be super focused on software engineering, design, information security and server hardware.”
“I firmly believe that all managers in a technical field should be technically excellent. Software managers must write great software, or it’s like being a cavalry captain who can’t ride!”
“Furthermore, business ethics expectations would have been excessive, but much less than I would have demanded of myself,” Musk added.
I strongly believe that all managers in a technical field should be technically excellent.
Managers in software must write great software, or it’s like being a cavalry captain who can’t ride!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2022
The excitement of being a Twitter employee doesn’t excite the company’s current employees in the same way. And part of it is because of Elon Musk himself, who violated part of the buyout agreement and has already publicly criticized the platform team.
One of the biggest controversies has to do with Twitter’s chief legal officer, Vijaya Gadde.
Elon Musk responded to a Twitter post by podcast host Saagar Enjeti in late April, citing a report claiming that Gadde was “emotional” during a meeting with the billionaire to discuss the deal.
In the post, Enjeti referred to Gadde as Twitter’s “leading censorship advocate”, referring to the company’s decision to block the sharing of a New York Post story about President Joe Biden’s son Hunter in 2020.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, the newspaper published a report classified as unconfirmed, alleging that Hunter Biden tried to introduce his father, then vice president of the United States, to an executive of the Ukrainian company he worked for.
Twitter said it blocked the report because it contained images of hacked material containing personal and private information.
The US election commission unanimously decided that Twitter made valid decisions on business grounds.
In response to this critical comment to his Twitter lawyer, Musk wrote:
“Suspending a major news organization’s Twitter account for publishing a true story was absolutely incredibly inappropriate.”
His rally led to negative tweets from users, including claims that Gadde would “go down in history as a horrible person”, while other posts called for him to lose his job.
Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo criticized the platform’s new owner’s behavior for bringing “harassment and threats” to a company employee, adding: “Bullying is not leadership.”
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source: Noticias
