It’s been a little over a year since Elon Musk first indicated he wanted to buy Twitter, and what a year it has been.
It was April 2022 when Musk offered to purchase the social media platform for $43 billion, or $54.20 per share, and take the company private. The months that followed saw plenty of back and forth as the deal was worked out, with Musk at one stage putting the deal on hold following reports that 5% of Twitter’s daily active users were spam accounts. This made great entertainment for Twitter users, as most of this played out publicly and in real time, with Musk tweeting updates and running polls about the deal to his 140million+ followers. The deal was eventually finalised in late October 2022, at a cost of $44 billion.
In the months since, we have seen dramatic changes at the tech company so popular with politicians and journalists alike. In his first week, and in an attempt to cut costs, Musk laid off around half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees, with current employee estimates now thought to be around 1,500. Inevitably, with such a dramatic reduction in workforce, user experience suffered as multiple bugs and glitches hit the platform.
Perhaps one of his most controversial moves was removing verification for prominent figures, including journalists, notable organisations and celebrities. Verification became only available to those who subscribed to Twitter Blue, which costs around £10 per month. This led to an increase of impersonation, which had real market shifting impact. For example, a fake Eli Lilly Twitter account posted that they would be making insulin free, leading to a stock value fall of 4.37%.
Yet despite all these issues, we have not really seen a mass exodus from Twitter, nor has there been a serious contender for an alternative platform. Decentralised platforms such as Mastodon, Bluesky and T2 have garnered some interest, but none have distinguished themselves as a true alternative, or been widely adopted.
So, what is yet to come for Twitter? Our advice – wait and see. Some of the initial teething problems are starting to work themselves out, particularly as Musk is talking about increasing headcount again, but only time will tell.
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