Elon Musk renamed Twitter as X.
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Tesla shares have fallen more than ten percent in the last year, and Elon Musk’s net worth has also fallen.
While Tesla struggles, Musk appears to be strengthening his other companies.
Lately, social media platform X has been looking more and more like good old Twitter.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor.
Tesla has lost its luster this year as demand for electric vehicles slows and pressure mounts in China.
Even the most optimistic analysts called the company a “wreck” last quarter. And since the assets of Elon Musk in lockstep with the automaker’s shares – falling by more than 10 percent in the last year, which means the once richest man dropped to fourth place on the list of the world‘s richest billionaires – the tech industry’s former golden boy appears to be strengthening his other companies to prevent further losses.
At his Social media company X This seems to mean the app is returning to the pre-Musk days of plain old Twitter.
Musk’s “return to basics”
“I think the strategy that’s emerging right now is a return to basics,” Gabor Cselle, a former project manager on Twitter’s trends team, told Business Insider: “I think the whole thing, To make X something dramatically different and reinventing the wheel hasn’t really happened, so we’re seeing a return to basics.”
Over the last few weeks, Twitter has been – sorry, X – celebrating the return of the status-based blue checkmark for accounts with a large number of verified followers experienced what according to CNN’s Oliver Darcy Musk’s “desperate desire to attract high-profile users back to the platform shows.”
And after the company laid off almost half of its employees since its takeover in 2022 and that Trust and security team significantly reducedinert, it is now reinvesting in the security of the platform by creating a new one Content Moderation Center in Texas and is hiring two new executives to oversee moderation on the platform NBC News reported earlier this month.
X/Twitter under Musk: 15 percent fewer users, 50 percent less advertising revenue
David Camp, the co-founder of brand consulting agency Metaforce, told Business Insider that the moves appear to be an attempt to lure advertisers back to the platform following a spike in hate speech on the site migrated were.
When Musk bought Twitter, Camp said, he had a “pretty cavalier attitude toward how traditional companies are run” and didn’t want to be “shackled” to the dynamics of an advertising-driven company, where the company must create and maintain stability and security in order to attract advertisers to attract. Since the Sales however continue to decline and the User loyalty decreasesCamp says it’s only logical for Musk to try to back down — even if that doesn’t mean it will work.
Although there are still loyal users on the platform, there are Variety reported last fall that X had lost 15 percent of its global user base since Musk took over. And Musk himself has admitted that the platform during his tenure around 50 percent of advertising revenue was lost hat.
Musk’s “lip service”
“Regardless of the little tactical changes they make to the platform, with the blue checks or the claims of more moderation, from a marketer’s perspective and from a brand building perspective, that’s just lip service,” Camp said. “Every time Musk opens his mouth and says something controversial – which he enjoys – reinforces the perception of Twitter as an unreliable advertising partner, which is why they will continue to lose revenue and continue to have a difficult time attracting advertisers.”
Musk and representatives from Tesla and X did not respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
Cselle said he believes that returning to an older, more trusted model of content moderation or review could help Musk win back some of the advertisers who left the company and cement the status that X had in the glory days, when it was still called Twitter. However, he said the app still benefits from users’ “muscle memory” that keeps them returning to the site, rather than Musk’s unfulfilled promises to introduce new features and X to an “everything app” to make.
Does Musk have to sell Tesla shares to save X/Twitter?
Twitter’s downward trend may parallel another of Musk’s flashier products: Teslas Cybertruck. In one Blog post In December, PR expert Ed Zitron predicted that “Musk’s sanity will take a turn for the worse as things at Twitter turn sour alongside the disastrous launch of Tesla’s Cybertruck in 2024.”
Although the Cybertruck has become a status symbol for celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Jay Z its market launch was overshadowed by harsh criticism. New owners of the $80,000 vehicle warned of pervasiveness Handprintsstubborn Rust spots and difficulties with Maneuvering the massive vehiclewhich weighs over 6,600 pounds.
“In any case, Musk will still have to pay interest on the debt as well as make up for Twitter’s massive loss of revenue and could be forced to sell more Tesla shares at a time when the company is starting to look quite fragile work,” wrote Zitron.
“Frankly the best thing Twitter can do is sideline Musk”
Camp says Musk has only himself and his increasingly “toxic” personal brand to blame, despite his apparent efforts to make the platform a more brand-friendly place by blaming Linda Yaccarino, the former chair of Global Advertising & Partnerships at NBCUniversal. as CEO of X.
Since taking on the role last June, Yaccarino has appeared by Musk in all areas been undermined to be, from the Announcement of changes to the platform up to Curbing anti-Semitism and hate speech on the website.
“Frankly, the best thing Twitter can do to regain its position is to sideline Musk. And the only way he could do that is if he sells it – and he would have to sell it at a massive loss,” Camp told Business Insider. “So unless he decides that he has matured as a person to the point where he no longer feels the need to be the brash, headstrong, unpredictable person that he is and turns into an elder statesman – which I find difficult can believe – I don’t think anything will change.”
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