Elon Musk bought Twitter with the idea of ??refloating the platform. The tycoon disbursed 44,000 million dollars and deployed a battery of changes, which are still ongoing. Among other things, he reinstated various accounts banned by the previous administration, megaphoned anonymous users, non-payment of rent, mass layoffs, dozens of controversies and the launch of Twitter Blue, the paid subscription with premium options. But none of that is working.
On the contrary. The changes have had dire results for the company, whose advertisers have fled in droves. From April 1 to the first week of May, advertising revenue was 88 million dollars (82,429,481 euros), 59% less than the previous year, according to The New York Times. Some bad figures for a social network that seeks income from anywhere.
In an internal document seen by this outlet, the company forecast that its US ad revenue for June would be 56% lower each week compared to a year ago. He talks about companies as important as General Motors and Volkswagen, among others.
Now, Musk himself has recognized that the number of advertisers does not stop falling. “We are still cash flow negative, due to a 50% drop in ad revenue,” he noted in a Twitter thread.
In addition, the tycoon acknowledges that the company also carries “a heavy load of debt.” The company’s goal is unequivocal: “We need to achieve positive cash flow before we can afford anything else.”
It seems that reversing the situation will not be easy. In the first place, because Twitter Blue, the paid subscription that costs 11 euros a month in Spain, has not worked as the company expected. Users are reluctant to pay and many are opting for alternative social networks like Mastodon or Meta Threads.
The new microblogging social network promoted by Mark Zuckerberg has recorded impressive numbers in its first week of life, becoming the fastest growing platform in history, surpassing one hundred million users. Problem after problem for Elon Musk.