Elon Musk is personally ruining Twitter’s ad business
QuartzApr 12, 2023
The Facts
In an interview with BBC broadcast live on Wednesday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk addressed several topics surrounding the company since his $44B purchase of the platform, including revealing that Twitter is “roughly breaking even.”
Musk, who Forbes estimates is worth $189.1B, also acknowledged he decided to forgo legal action and, instead, complete his purchase of Twitter late last year because he felt he would’ve lost his case.
The Spin
Narrative A
Musk can sugarcoat it all he wants, but Twitter is an ad-reliant platform and ad sales are projected to drop by around 28% this year over last. And the number one problem is Musk: Advertisers can’t trust him, especially since he’s rolled back rules related to objectionable content and revamped the verification system. For Twitter to survive, it will have to do better than break even, and that’ll only happen when the platform is separated from Musk’s personal brand.
Narrative B
Saving Twitter wasn't an easy task, but it looks like the worst is behind Musk and the platform. Twitter now has a sleeker workforce, a subscription model that’ll help offset advertising losses, and many advertisers are returning after waiting to see what Musk would do with the company. In a matter of months, Twitter could be in the black.
Nerd narrative
There's a 50% chance that Musk will be succeeded as CEO of Twitter by November 2023, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
