4 ms·

Musk fired 80% of Twitter and everyone thought that Twitter was doomed

12 points by runningmike 2y ago

wkat4242 2y ago
Uhm so Twitter isn't doomed? I mean it still runs but it's more toxic than ever.
kbf 2y ago
The company might still be around, but the product has suffered major damage. I’ve been hopelessly addicted to Twitter for a long time, and couldn’t get myself to stop using it after the sale even if it went against my morals. But over time the site just got so unusably bad that I eventually couldn’t put up with it anymore and the problem solved itself.
not1ofU 2y ago
https://nitter.privacydev.net/seanpk/status/1800145949580517852 https://nitter.privacydev.net/seanpk/status/1800145949580517...
draw_down 2y ago
[dead]
laweijfmvo 2y ago
People will say Twitter failed because advertisers pulled out of spite, but that doesn't change the fact that Musk overpaid for it trying to make a meme. Smart business guy.
- peutetre 2y ago
  > advertisers pulled out of spite I wouldn't describe it as spite when the owner of the platform hopes they don't advertise on it and tells them to go fuck themselves: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23981928/elon-musk-ad-boycott-go-fuck-yourself-destroy-x https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23981928/elon-musk-ad-bo... It turns out alienating your customers is bad for business.
DamnYuppie 2y ago
Disclosure: I am not a financial analyst of any form. I did some searching and found the following: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitter-statistics/ https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitter-statistics/ If this data is accurate it is saying that advertising revenue has fallen from $4.5 Billion in 2021 to $2.5 Billion in 2023. In a vacuum that type of decline isn't something I would be celebrating. I have heard that they would be profitable in 2024. So I looked up their last Annual report, https://seekingalpha.com/filings/pdf/14719987 https://seekingalpha.com/filings/pdf/14719987, and it says in 2020 their "Total costs and expenses" were $3,689,691 with the biggest line item being R&D of $1,366,388. So it actually could be that they have lost revenue but are now profitable due to lower expenses mainly related to head count. The question then becomes is the decline in revenue due to fewer employees or how Musk has positioned X and or behaved that has turned off advertisers? Some quick reading of the first link above shows that usage doesn't look to have declined since he took over.
jqpabc123 2y ago
Firing 80% of the employees coincided with a comparable drop in stock value. Management master class of the decade? Certainly debatable but I suspect Musk would prefer to have the stock value back.
- mgiannopoulos 2y ago
  The value of a private company is not so easy to estimate. Meanwhile, xAI which gets (licenses) all its training data from Twitter is worth $25 billion on their latest round. Maybe take this into account.
r721 2y ago
>After the right-sizing, Twitter has rolled out more features than they ever could before. People keep saying this, but what are they? Community Notes were introduced before Musk, exposing internal impressions' stats is kind of a trivial feature, just as boosting paid blue checks in replies. Maybe Spaces (I don't use that)?
- mgiannopoulos 2y ago
  From the top of my head; Spaces is usable and can support larger amounts of people (it didn’t in the past) You can do live streaming directly now You can upload videos of multiple hours with subtitles and chapters. Revenue sharing is not trivial either.
  - r721 2y ago
    I also forgot about long tweets (though these also were tested before Musk? not sure) and articles (https://x.com/Write/status/1765884209527394325 https://x.com/Write/status/1765884209527394325).
    - mgiannopoulos 2y ago
      I think it was 280 chars still. It is now that you can do very long posts with formatting and multiple images embedded in the text. Editing posts was in beta and was released in full after the purchased

12 points by runningmike 2y ago

Uhm so Twitter isn't doomed? I mean it still runs but it's more toxic than ever.

kbf 2y ago

The company might still be around, but the product has suffered major damage. I’ve been hopelessly addicted to Twitter for a long time, and couldn’t get myself to stop using it after the sale even if it went against my morals. But over time the site just got so unusably bad that I eventually couldn’t put up with it anymore and the problem solved itself.

not1ofU 2y ago

https://nitter.privacydev.net/seanpk/status/1800145949580517852 https://nitter.privacydev.net/seanpk/status/1800145949580517...

draw_down 2y ago

[dead]

laweijfmvo 2y ago

People will say Twitter failed because advertisers pulled out of spite, but that doesn't change the fact that Musk overpaid for it trying to make a meme. Smart business guy.

peutetre 2y ago
> advertisers pulled out of spite I wouldn't describe it as spite when the owner of the platform hopes they don't advertise on it and tells them to go fuck themselves: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23981928/elon-musk-ad-boycott-go-fuck-yourself-destroy-x https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23981928/elon-musk-ad-bo... It turns out alienating your customers is bad for business.

DamnYuppie 2y ago

Disclosure: I am not a financial analyst of any form. I did some searching and found the following: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitter-statistics/ https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitter-statistics/ If this data is accurate it is saying that advertising revenue has fallen from $4.5 Billion in 2021 to $2.5 Billion in 2023. In a vacuum that type of decline isn't something I would be celebrating. I have heard that they would be profitable in 2024. So I looked up their last Annual report, https://seekingalpha.com/filings/pdf/14719987 https://seekingalpha.com/filings/pdf/14719987, and it says in 2020 their "Total costs and expenses" were $3,689,691 with the biggest line item being R&D of $1,366,388. So it actually could be that they have lost revenue but are now profitable due to lower expenses mainly related to head count. The question then becomes is the decline in revenue due to fewer employees or how Musk has positioned X and or behaved that has turned off advertisers? Some quick reading of the first link above shows that usage doesn't look to have declined since he took over.

jqpabc123 2y ago

Firing 80% of the employees coincided with a comparable drop in stock value. Management master class of the decade? Certainly debatable but I suspect Musk would prefer to have the stock value back.

mgiannopoulos 2y ago
The value of a private company is not so easy to estimate. Meanwhile, xAI which gets (licenses) all its training data from Twitter is worth $25 billion on their latest round. Maybe take this into account.

r721 2y ago

>After the right-sizing, Twitter has rolled out more features than they ever could before. People keep saying this, but what are they? Community Notes were introduced before Musk, exposing internal impressions' stats is kind of a trivial feature, just as boosting paid blue checks in replies. Maybe Spaces (I don't use that)?

mgiannopoulos 2y ago
From the top of my head; Spaces is usable and can support larger amounts of people (it didn’t in the past) You can do live streaming directly now You can upload videos of multiple hours with subtitles and chapters. Revenue sharing is not trivial either.
- r721 2y ago
  I also forgot about long tweets (though these also were tested before Musk? not sure) and articles (https://x.com/Write/status/1765884209527394325 https://x.com/Write/status/1765884209527394325).
  - mgiannopoulos 2y ago
    I think it was 280 chars still. It is now that you can do very long posts with formatting and multiple images embedded in the text. Editing posts was in beta and was released in full after the purchased