The platform’s billionaire owner has seen its value plunge as advertisers run shy, revenues drop and user numbers fall
Two years ago, there was some trepidation among advertisers, anti-hate-speech groups and staff about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
Those concerns have been borne out: advertisers have sharply reduced spending on the platform, Musk has sued nonprofits over their coverage of a rise in controversial content and about eight out of 10 employees have been sacked.
The service, now rebranded as X, is not worth the $44bn Musk paid for it on 27 October 2022 – later tweeting “the bird is freed” in a reference to its corporate logo. The plunge in value reflects the damage done to its advertising-dependent business model.
But its continued influence as a news source and its role as an outlet for broadcasting its owner’s rightwing views to his 200 million-plus followers, means the benefit to the world’s richest person does not need to be measured in financial benchmarks alone.
His Twitter bet always paid off because it was a big ego boost regardless of the financial hit.
He has a place where he can totally control the message to fit his own wishes and he knows he has an army of sycophants to back him up while they media pays attention.
Sure, he got attention on Twitter before. But now he controls the messaging on Twitter, bans whoever he wants on a whim, etc.
Meanwhile, he gets to continue to tell his “hilarious” juvenile attempts at jokes and all the suck-ups tell him what a great comedian is.
I really hope he thinks he can do a comedy special eventually. Because it will be hilarious. And not for the reason he would want it to be.