It has been two weeks since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 Billion and took on $13 billion debt in the process. Since then, advertiser have fled, Twitter Blue was revamped with less features and higher price (which includes a very worthless verification badge which they attempted to resolve with yet another badge) several key executives keep leaving (which could put Twitter in danger of violating an FTC decree from 2011 resulting in massive fines) and he gutted half the workforce…plus the remaining half which survived the massive layoff last week are being told working remote is no longer an option. So things can’t any worse for Twitter….right? Well, it seems it can, Chief Twit gave a very grim outlook during a recent all-hands meeting,
Musk said that Twitter is losing so much money that “bankruptcy is not out of the question,” The Information and Platformer reported.
Twitter hasn’t turned a profit since 2019, and ad revenue has declined significantly since Musk’s takeover as advertisers pull back from the platform. At the all-hands, Musk said Twitter could have “net negative cash flow of several billion dollars” in 2023, according to The Information. He also suggested that Twitter’s future depends upon the success of the revamped Twitter Blue subscription service.
There are so many issues with the revamped Twitter Blue including the $7.99 USD a month (introductory) price tag (up from $4.99 USD a month to removal of ad-free content and of course the whole ‘verification’ fiasco. Yes, there are suppose to be new features such as Edit button (coming soon), posting longer video and audio as well as the ability to bypass paywalls (coming soon) all with fewer ads. One major problem: the new Twitter Blue is only available on iOS (not on Android or Web). In addition those who created a Twitter account on or after November 9, 2022 can not subscribe to Twitter Blue at this time. So, let me get this straight….Twitter’s financial future is based on a ‘new and improved’ premium service which is only accessible by users with Apple devices and living in US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK?! He has already acknowledged ‘Twitter can not entirely rely on advertisers‘, but I somehow don’t think Twitter Blue is going to the magic pill to cure all of Twitter’s financial problems.
via engadget