Twitter was acquired by Elon Musk with a whopping $44 billion, which is 33% more than its actual valuation at the time of completing the deal.
The world's richest man demonstrates that money can buy anything by launching the Twitter saga with a single tweet.
The real worth of Twitter was significantly lower than it was even before Musk first expressed his interest.
A few days have passed since the CEO of Tesla completed the biggest leveraged buyout of a technology company in the history of the industry.
However, it has already experienced numerous events within this brief period.
Elon Musk has designated himself CEO of Twitter and disbanded its board of directors just after securing the deal, as Twitter employees prepare for massive layoffs as part of a new restructuring that could affect as much as a quarter of the workforce.
In fact, he announced himself as the "Chief Twit" by posting a Tweet.
There were nine Twitter directors.
Brett Taylor, the former board chairman of Twitter, is among the executives dismissed from the board of directors.
Musk also sacked the top executives of Twitter, which included the Chief Executive, Parag Agrawal, Finance Chief, Ned Segal, and Legal Affairs and Policy Chief, Vijaya Gadde.
Former CEO Agrawal was expected to be fired considering his open rebellion against Musk's entrance and his deal for Twitter.
Elon Musk frequently referred to him as a loyalist to the former board of directors and questioned his commitment to the company's best interests owing to his lack of participation in the initial agreements.
Earlier, the company's chief people and diversity officer, Dalana Brand, and Sarah Personette, chief customer officer, and ad boss announced their resignation from their respective positions.
Apart from the immediate termination of 25% of employees regarding Musk's takeover, the new owner said that the overall layoff would be 75% of total employees.
The new owner of Twitter confronts several financial issues due to the acquisition at a staggering price.
This microblogging platform failed to generate an annual profit in three of the previous five years and incurred $13 billion in debt as part of the megadeal.
Digital advertising, which contributes up to 90% of Twitter's revenue, has declined everywhere.
Musk has introduced a monthly subscription for blue ticks, possibly to offset anticipated losses.
It cannot be a significant source of income.
Musk's purpose is pretty apparent.
He desires to give Twitter a completely fresh appearance.
But the pressing question remains: Will the new initiatives expand Twitter effectively and create sufficient revenue?
New developments
Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, revealed he would implement a paid blue tick for Twitter users.
Initially, the monthly subscription cost is $8 per user each month.
He added that with the paid subscription, a user will get priority in replies, and mentions, which is essential to defeating spam/scams, and the ability to post long videos and audio and encounter fewer ads.
Twitter purportedly boasts 230 million users, although this number includes spam and fake accounts and has never been disclosed. Will this business model work out to lure maximum users while the current number is far lower than any other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok etc.?
Blue tick matters a lot for the elites and celebrities.
For them, $8 is nothing, but just a penny.
In this manner, non-blue tick users (the general public here) will be demotivated.
Screen time on Twitter will decline.
The entitled elite is not worried that they have to pay $8 per month.
They are infuriated that anyone can pay $8 per month.
Current Twitter Blue ticks can be compared to premium LinkedIn or Apple products.
If someone has it, it means they belong to a specific class of people subject to prove the authenticity of the person, and it gives a person credibility.
Then it might bring commodity fetishism among the users, which could lead to downward consequences.
Take LinkedIn as an example since they introduced premium paid services.
Since then, the functionality of the entire algorithm was changed.
Similarly, Twitter will alter its entire algorithm. It is alarming that the site might lose more general users who are not willing to pay the monthly subscription fee.
Entitled elites need the commoners to follow them and engage with them. So, it is vice versa necessity for any kind of user.
Providing additional privileges to blue tick users may affect the number of regular and new users.
Eventually, it would have an impact on Twitter's profit.
As a result of the modified algorithm, many users would spend less time on Twitter.
It is a belief that more ads for non-blue ticks (unpaid users) will be injected, which will ultimately make it annoying to use for a large group.
There are also some other speculations which indicate that Twitter is planning to present itself as a super app like WeChat.
It might be an act of corporate suicide.
First, the majority of Twitter users belong to a niche community.
Therefore, such premium users have little interest in such multifunctional app features.
Musk appears to always view himself as a "free speech absolutist."
He regularly asserts that his principal objective in acquiring Twitter is to create a regulatory-free atmosphere where individuals can freely express their opinions and thoughts.
On the contrary, Mask is going to impose such classifications of blue or non-blue tick users, which will implicate the reach of the freedom of speech.
The most wealthy person on the planet has also seen a fall in his net worth because of the recent Twitter controversy.
According to assessments by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk's net worth has dropped by $9 billion.
Since the beginning of the year, his net worth has tumbled by around 25%, which is $203 billion at present.
Will he transform Twitter into a thriving and profitable business and boost the number of users and their engagements on this microblogging site?
The author is a researcher, columnist, and communications and development professional. He can be reached at [email protected]
