It’s a valid question and no one quite knows the answer.
When Elon took over Twitter last year, users and employees of Twitter were up in arms. He fired top executives, laid off half the staff and revamped the platform’s subscription service.
Little did they know this was not the end of it, there was more to come. This weekend might have just been Twitter’s worst weekend ever.
“What did Elon do?” I hear you ask.
Limit Tweets:
Limit how many tweets non-verified users can see and block access to users who aren’t logged in. Now, these may not seem a big deal but they’re going to have a significant impact across the board.
Remove analytics access:
Tweetdeck will also now only be available to verified users. Previously accessible to all, Tweetdeck allows users to track and analyse the performance of their posts. To top this off, Musk is now going to charge 3rd party companies to access their API, restricting analysis even further.
Reduced income
Elon is well known for being against advertising, Tesla doesn’t advertise, and he doesn’t see the point in it. Twitter however is different, the company is built and funded by ads. The news of Elon’s tweet restrictions has seen their revenue nearly cut in half as advertisers pull their spending from the platform due to uncertainty.
So, how will Twitter now generate income?
With the uncertainty around ads, Twitter will now lean heavily on users signing up to become verified. Previously only awarded to those with a certain number of followers and given in certain circumstances, Twitter users can now purchase verification for a monthly fee.
What does this mean for me?
For companies who rely on Twitter for their marketing, it may be time to either look for other platforms, you could pay to become a verified user or move your efforts elsewhere.
For the people who just enjoy dead scrolling through Twitter in the evening… you can either accept your 1000 tweets a day, you could always pay to become a verified user or you could look for a new platform and this could very well be ‘Threads’. What on earth is Threads? I hear you say, read on and we’ll tell you all.
This is the new conversation app conveniently launched by Musk’s rival and owner of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg. Threads was launched just days after Twitter’s announcement. The similarities are endless, this app is direct competition for Twitter. Visually, the platform is almost identical, with readers able to ‘share posts’ instead of retweeting. And because Threads is part of the Meta empire, the current 2bn Instagram users will be able to make an easy move over. With Twitter’s recent trend of upsetting its users and advertisers, it’s easy to see how Threads could become the new favourite here.
It’s certainly interesting times ahead, and after the recently publicised fight between Zuckerberg and Musk, it looks like the gloves are already off, but who will come out on top? And who’s going to be retreating? Only time will tell.
