Six months into Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover — here’s what we know so far about his plan
Six months into Musk’s tempestuous tenure of Twitter and his plan is finally becoming clearer.
The controversial billionaire wants to turn Twitter 2.0 into a WeChat-style super app, where people can do everything; from talking to friends to buying groceries. Everything except watch ads. As ever with Musk, advertisers don’t seem to be a top priority.
After all, “It is most important that Twitter keeps its freedom of speech, and if it means a loss of advertisement dollars then so be it,” said Musk at his fireside chat at the recent Possible event in Miami.
Bottom line: advertisers are low on Musk’s priority list, if on it at all.
Musk believes Twitter should be an open forum for free speech for all, regardless of what voices that may be. And while not advocating reach, this still includes the likes of far right groups, inappropriate content and misogynistic posts to name a few. Simply put, those accounts can still post on Twitter, but they won’t be promoted. Of course the problem for advertisers is no one wants their content to exist near these posts.
“It boggles the mind to walk away from the primary revenue source while trying to rebuild this airplane while flying it,” said Matt Voda, CEO of OptiMine Software. “And yet Musk keeps doubling down on things that drain brand safety and continue to scare off major advertisers.”
Despite the chaos the industry has witnessed at Twitter HQ since Musk took over Oct. 28, Twitter’s daily active users have slightly increased.
Earnings records showed the platform recorded an average of 229 million monetizable DAUs for Q1 2022 — the last period before it was announced that Musk would enter into a takeover deal. But since October, the original blue bird app’s DAUs have averaged around 246.8 million, with a mean average increase of 1.3 million new users each month, per data from Apptopia. So it’s clear no Twitter-alternative has fit the bill enough for users to abandon the app in their masses just yet.
And usually, wherever audiences go, advertisers automatically follow. But given the turmoil that has ensued since Musk signed on Twitter’s dotted line — reported increases of hate speech, lifetime banned users reinstated and almost daily concerns over brand safety — advertisers have been forced to give it a wide berth. They’ve had to contend with slow responses (if any at all) due to lack of remaining staff at Twitter HQ available to answer their questions.
And whether it’s the platform’s subscription service Twitter Blue or creator monetization (or rather lack of), Musk has turned his attention elsewhere on Twitter. All in all, not a lot has really changed for marketers over the first six months of Musk’s tenure.
The continued havoc has seen advertising spend on the platform plummet from around $156.6 million last October, to just $76.9 million (so far) in April 2023, according to Pathmatics data. Within that, it’s no surprise that the top 20 advertisers on Twitter during the week commencing Oct. 16 (pre-Musk), which …read more
Source:: Digiday
