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By I. Toledo  As of March 2022, the social media platform Twitter was bought by none other than Elon Musk, the world’s richest man alive, for the price of 44 billion dollars. With a net worth of 215.6 billion dollars, Musk has acquired another valuable addition to his empire, and this newly private Twitter promises some changes.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter its digital town square,” said Musk. Now the owner of that town square, Musk assured he would promote free speech and transparency, but whether he will keep that promise is still a mystery. Musk’s Notable Plans for Twitter Massive increase in revenue One of the most ambitious plans for the app is to increase Twitter’s revenue to 26.4 billion dollars by 2028, when last year that number stood at 5 billion. To achieve that, Musk has shared many strategies, including the cutting of the app’s reliance on advertising from 90% in 2020 to 45% of the total revenue by 2028. He expects that, by 2028, advertising would generate 12 billion dollars in revenue, subscriptions about 10 billion dollars, and the rest from businesses such as data licensing. Another interesting change proposed was to implement a fee for commercial or government users, which would also contribute to Twitter’s revenue, and also the company’s new experimental paid version called Twitter Blue. Musk also plans to improve the company’s payments business, aiming to produce 15 million dollars in revenue from it in 2023. Because of these advances, Musk also anticipates he can increase the app’s average revenue per user from 24.83 dollars in 2021 to 30.22 dollars by 2028. Raise the number of users There are currently 217 million daily active users on Twitter, but in only 3 years from now, Musk expects this number to increase to almost 600 million, and by 2028, to an astounding 931 million users. Comeback of banned figures A polemic proposal by Musk is his declaration to reverse Twitter’s ban on former president Donald Trump, who was banned from the app due to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th this year. “I think it was a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme,” he stated. This decision goes against one of the most significant and widely debated corporate rulings in American tech and received both positive and negative backlash from users. Many Republican politicians as well as other right-wing citizens praised Musk’s decision, however, others are afraid of Trump’s regaining a vital tool that led him to the white house 5 years ago. Political neutrality Building on the previous topic, Musk has expressed his wish to make Twitter less politically biased, tweeting that “A social media platform’s policies are good if the most extreme 10% on left and right are equally unhappy”. This aim is also controversial, as even though many support Musk’s plan to make Twitter politically neutral and to allow people to express themselves freely, this led to criticism expressing concern that the tycoon will concede extremist views, including those from users that violate existing rules, to remain on the platform Changes in the workplace Many of Twitter’s workers have shown skepticism towards Musk’s takeover, afraid it will change their whole work ethic and culture, especially after Musk tweeted a meme with a photo of the company’s top layer that showed her as an icon of “Twitter’s left-wing bias.” “Work ethic expectations would be extreme, but much less than I demand of myself,” tweeted the billionaire. Musk’s companies are known for their long hours and high expectations, and as he said, “Certainly if anyone doesn’t feel comfortable with that, they will on their own accord go somewhere else.” Furthermore, Musk’s plan includes firing about 1,000 workers during the first few months in order to be able to hire thousands in the future, so it is safe to say that Twitter’s employees are on their toes, anxiously waiting for Musk’s next move and hoping they won’t be chosen for the layoffs. Overall, it can be concluded that change is a given in Twitter’s future, and even though there will certainly be bumps on the road, the destination predicted by Musk seems glorious. Now all we must do is wait and see if he gets there. Bibliography: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/10/elon-musk-twitter-plans/ https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-plans-twitter https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/technology/elon-musk-twitter-pitch-deck.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/10/musk-talk-twitter/ https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/twitter-elon-musk-deal-what-happens-to-twitter-now-rcna26069
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