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X CEO Says Platform Should Turn Profit in 2024
- baz00 3y agoIf Musk says something, take the opposite stance. Bet on the demise of X in 2024.
- jpadkins 3y agoMusk is not the CEO of X
- bragr 3y agoDefine "demise" It can get significantly worse and still be a going concern
- bdcravens 3y agoExcept Elon didn't say this. He's not the CEO. "X Corp. Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino said on Wednesday..."
- baz00 3y agoOur CEO has a hand up his arse from the parent org's CEO. In this case, parent ego.
- paulddraper 3y agoIt was Yaccarino not Musk who said it, FYI (That's why you read the article, kids)
- 15457345234 3y agoThe anti-Musk fervour never ceases to amuse me Reddit is literally wall to wall 'musk empire crashing' for the past 4 years and yet the progress continues (largely) unabated. It's all very odd.
- paulddraper 3y agoYou're either in or you're out
- 15457345234 3y agoMusk dogs unite, I guess
- tekla 3y agoRead the article kids. Or at least dont be completely wrong.
- Zetobal 3y agoI don't get how it is allowed that C-Suits just are allowed to blatantly lie to their investors/board/users they have the data and they know it won't happen. Exactly how Musks knows FSD won't happen this year...
- alsodumb 3y agoTo investors and board? I don't think they really care as long as Tesla makes them money which it is. To users, it doesn't matter unless sometimes sues them. And I'm pretty sure there is some terms and services clause that makes it non trivial to sue. But also, how is FSD/Tesla relevant to an article on X? Just because it's the same CEO?
- manicennui 3y agoI think the point is that Musk has proven that he can't be fully trusted.
- Zambyte 3y agoWell, they did say "should" (opinion) rather than "will" (prediction of fact)
- toomuchtodo 3y agoLying to users about performance is covered under free speech. It's securities fraud if Musk is knowingly lying to those with an interest in X, even if a private company. Necessary components are standing ("I own a piece of X"), appetite to litigate, and evidence the statement was knowingly untrue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_Exchange_Act_of_1934 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_Exchange_Act_of_193... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Securities_Litigation_Reform_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Securities_Litigation_...
- sschueller 3y agoDidn't workout for Nikola. Their trunk didn't work when it was presented but I could say the same thing to the solar roof installation Elon presented.
- boxed 3y agoI would like CEOs saying stuff like this to be forced to take own-money bets on it. I'd like to get in on that action...
- paulddraper 3y agoI mean... Don't they?
- boxed 3y agoNo. Not their own money.
- bdcravens 3y agoFor publicly traded companies (which X no longer is) you can always get in on the action, and short the stock. For privately held companies, what difference does it make what they say? (to anyone else other than the actual stakeholders)
- boxed 3y agoNot their own money though. That's the key.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- satellite2 3y agohttps://archive.ph/rhMux https://archive.ph/rhMux
- anonyme-honteux 3y ago> X CEO Says Platform Should Turn Profit in 2024 If you believe it, it's not a lie!
- addaon 3y agoMusk's Cybertruck will self-drive over to the X-branded office to pick up the bags of cash.
- brandonagr2 3y agoHow can you classify a prediction as a lie? You could say it's unrealistic or delusional based solely on your guesses without having seen any financial data, but it's not a lie.
- ceejayoz 3y agoIf they're saying "should turn a profit" publicly and their internal numbers say "almost certainly won't turn a profit", that prediction is, IMO, a lie.
- anonyme-honteux 3y ago
- AI52487963 3y agoCEOs say lots of things: https://xombocom.ytmnd.com/ https://xombocom.ytmnd.com/
- Balgair 3y agoytmnd?! Now that's a site I haven't seen in a Long time.
- scblock 3y agoBut it won't.
- Grimblewald 3y agoSure it will, a site being served to absolutely no one and being paid for by a handful of people who died with automatically reoccurring subscriptions that won't be turned off for a wee while will turn a cent or two of profit.
- coldcode 3y agoIf you don't pay your rent and other obligations, profit is easy. Of course it might eventually catch up to you...
- lotsofpulp 3y agoIf you do not open your books for auditing, claiming profit is easy too.
- bnt 3y agoThis is obviously not a popular opinion, but: I think this is great news. In the world of Meta dominating social media (+ TikTok now de facto in 2nd spot), we need diversity in the field. Twitter (X) definitely changed in the past year, but I see it as a positive change (maybe it's my bubble) - my tech feed is no longer polluted by people fighting about left vs right, Trump etc, my feed is now tech people sharing tech-related content and I love it.
- donohoe 3y agoYeah, its definitely your bubble. I'm seeing much more racism, trolling, and abuse. And from talking with other folks (IRL) I don't think this is my own bubble either.
- delecti 3y agoAlso, much more racism, trolling, and abuse are all promoted. The blue-check replies are among the worst of it, and now they're pushed to the top.
- nindalf 3y agoGood for you for only thinking about your experience. If only everyone would be similarly narrow-minded, then X could truly thrive.
- ReptileMan 3y agoTwitter disrupted the ability of mobs to self organize and some of the most toxic culture warriors left for Mastodon. So the people left there are the ones that can live with the idea that wrongthink exists and there is no need to be extinguished.
- paulddraper 3y agoI agree. Twitter kicked out a lot of right wing zealots, and now I think the left wing zealots have left for greener pastures.
- TkTech 3y agoConversely, I can only find that now on mastodon, where it only shows me who I've explicitly followed and not some algorithmic feed. Just took a look at my Twitter homepage. It's hate speech, aliens live along us, flight tracking (?), various conspiracy theories and weird American right-wing crap (I'm not even American), and a couple of tech posts. It's become complete garbage.
- bragr 3y agoI had honestly forgotten that they had hired her for a moment. I guess that answers the question if Musk was really going to step aside and let her take the reigns.
- lawn 3y agoStep aside, sure. But let her take the reins? No way. She's just a glorified puppet and if Elon tells her to jump, she'll ask how high.
- tempodox 3y agoReal Soon Now™
- pc_edwin 3y agoI'd be surprised if they didn't. Heck I'm a little surprised that its taking them this long. I'm guessing all those severance checks must have hurt. Either way, a part of me really wishes Elon didn't the take company private. It would've been pretty cool to own a little piece of the rocket ship. For those of you who are not convinced, lets put it this way: We all stuck with Twitter for the better part of a decade under sub optimal management. A lot of you stuck with or are coming back to X despite being against the new values of the company & and its owner. All is to say, the network effects are unfathomably strong. All they have to do is sprinkle in some monetisation via empowering the top 5% that actually creates stuff. Easiest bet of the decade. I wouldn't be surprised if X becomes a 500b company by the end of the decade.
- losvedir 3y agoI’m not surprised the comments here are universally skeptical so far, but I’ll chime in that I think it’s plausible. The largest expense by far was compensation and with 10% the previous workforce it dropped dramatically. The question is how much revenue would have fallen. In the HN bubble X is basically over and everyone has moved to Mastodon, but there has been little change in the folks I follow. Are journalists and ordinary folk leaving en masse as well?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- autonomousErwin 3y agoHave most HN people gone over to Mastadon? Personally I think Twitter/X has improved and become more interesting though the monetisation schema feels like it's pushing it towards it being a bit more LinkedIn'y (people are chasing impressions more than they used to because an actual carrot exists).
- nonethewiser 3y agoIs it literally 10% or is that figurative?
- ceejayoz 3y agohttps://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/tech/elon-musk-bbc-interview-twitter-intl-hnk/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/tech/elon-musk-bbc-interview-... > Musk was quoted as saying in the interview that the social media platform now has only 1,500 employees, down from under 8,000 who were employed at the time of his acquisition. The reduction equates to roughly 80% of the company’s staff. That was in April. Another 10% since then seems entirely plausible.
- GaryNumanVevo 3y agoA recent recruiting email I got from X said their team is 50 people. Maybe that's just engineering, but it's tiny. I noticed they're also hiring random remote devs with barely any experience too.
- libraryatnight 3y agoCEO of what?
- paulddraper 3y agoNot to be that guy but RTFA.
- jd3 3y agoAnecdotally speaking as a long time twitter lurker, the quality of my "For You" feed has dropped precipitously since the Musk acquisition — I am now consistently getting trashy, lowest common denominator shock/click-bait posts about race, iq, social/political violence, hitler, etc. in my feed despite the fact that I do not seek that content out and have only ever used twitter for art/philosophy/literature/tech/science etc. If that kind of dark engagement tactic is partially what it takes for twitter to become profitable, then it will be at the expense of its dignity and soul.
- rchaud 3y agoEven if I'm on the "Following" tab, I often do not see posts from people I've followed.
- jd3 3y agoI've just been making lists and manually navigating to profiles
- micv 3y agoThe replies from blue ticks that get pushed up mostly seem to be braindead trolling and camgirl spam too. Twitter was always a bit of a cesspit but you could curate your way to a useful feed. Now it's just awful.
- GaryNumanVevo 3y agoof course once you incentivize for mass engagement over everything, the site is going to turn into a reddit-like overnight
- nonethewiser 3y agoLots of skepticism here with the implicit recognition that it would be a major accomplishment if true. And it absolutely would be a major accomplishment if true.
- jhp123 3y agoyou could turn any company profitable by firing all its employees and licensing the brand name. It will be an extraordinary accomplishment indeed if X becomes a > $44 billion company, but turning a small profit on declining revenue is not actually moving that direction.
- nonethewiser 3y ago> you could turn any company profitable by firing all its employees and licensing the brand name Then why does any company fail when they could just do this 1 easy trick?
- DueDilligence 3y ago[dead]
- logicalmonster 3y agoA few questions based on reading the comments here. 1) Why are people so certain that the claims that X should profit are incorrect? X did cut a massive percentage of their staff, and presumably whatever infrastructure changes they've initiated in the past months to save money should be done by then. Nobody can perfectly predict the future, but reducing expenses drastically seems like a good step forward in achieving their goal. 2) Why are people acting so personally hurt if X thrives? I don't even see this level of animosity for companies that deserve this level of ire, like companies that deliberately pollute the oceans or even the cable companies. 3) Are people rooting for X to fail? I think competition for Facebook and other social media is a great thing, and X still has a certain connection with the zeitgeist that I don't think can be matched. 4) Why are people ok with the rampant deadnaming of X? Do better!
- rchaud 3y ago> Nobody can perfectly predict the future, but reducing expenses drastically seems like a good step forward in achieving their goal. Cutting expenses is one part of the equation. The other is debt servicing. There's $13 billion in loans used to buy Twitter, that now sit on Twitter's balance sheet. There's a minimum of $1.2 billion in annual interest payments on those loans.
- logicalmonster 3y ago> There's a minimum of $1.2 billion in annual interest payments on those loans. That's a big number, but in an of itself doesn't really say anything conclusively without knowing the rest of their expenses as well as revenue. Since X is now a private company, does the public have access to that other info other than making guesses based on past years' financial filings?
- pc_edwin 3y agoCutting expenses doesn't really put in perspective. Head count was cut by over 80%. Everything was switched to austerity mode. These are not minimum wage workers, these are thousands of people who on average got payed more than the president. Beyond that, we also have twitter blue. I'm guessing they have crossed one million by now. Thats bordering $100m ARR. Then there is the advertising revenue, Twitter made $5 billion in revenue with a total loss of 220m. Even if advertising was cut by half, thats still $2.5B in income. Honestly I'm surprised they are not profitable now, let alone next year.
- michaelwilson 3y agoSo does this include paying off all their past obligations, including, but not limited to: Rent(s), Vendor Payment(s), Employee termination and back pay, etc, etc? And this are only the debts which have been talked about _publically_.
- agumonkey 3y agoIsn't it a superb case of death by finance ? musk-twitter is not twitter anymore, but is potentially profitable.. "yay".
- Grollicus 3y agoI suspect people underestimate how much third world shitholes are willing to pay to have more influence over the discussion on twitter. Doesn't matter if it's saudi arabia, india or russia.
- almatabata 3y agoRegardless of i might think of elon musk i kind of want him to succeed with X because i would like to see a social media platform make the users pay to fund the service. If you add this kind of payment to the website you actually make the service less beholden to ad revenue so you do not have to worry as much about their sensibilities. If the subscription fee gets big enough i think the company would become beholden to the users and hopefully serve their needs more than the advertisers (maybe my wishful thinking).