Elon Musk looks to spell financial bloodletting in 280 characters or less
Musky, Dusty, Busty - all became synonyms for Twitter as of October 28 following the transition to new management under Elon Musk. This has brought much controversy as many think the billionaire will make the platform change for the worse.
Twitter user and student teacher Dylan Iehl sees the future of the app in decline.
“Musk will quickly find out that the policies he doesn't like are in place for a reason, and that Twitter was already being run as a business,” he said.
Some changes have already been observed, as the use of racial slurs on the platform has been up 500% since Musk bought the app.
Despite this, freshman Jack Ueker holds out hope that Musk can positively affect the app.
“Musk will likely make the app better, but this might start some controversy,” he said.
Musk also has the task of making Twitter profitable so he can pay off the loans that were taken out when he bought it, a monumental task due to the company not being profitable before he bought it. Twitter Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022) present the company as not having made much profit; it has actually lost $221 million as of 2021. Freshman Clark Howell finds Musk’s attempts to improve the app unsuccessful thus far.
“It will be hard for Musk to make the company profitable in the amount of time he needs to pay off the loans,” he said.
Another change to the platform is Twitter Blue, an eight-dollar subscription for verification. With this, the algorithm will heavily prioritize verified accounts. The company expects to go from losing money to a profitable company. However, Iehl finds inconsistencies in this plan.
“It was already losing 200 million dollars a year, and he has saddled it with interest payments of a billion dollars a year, so now it is losing around 1000% more than it already was,” he said. “If he does not get everyone to subscribe to Twitter Blue and 10 million more users to buy it, it won’t work.”
Iehl saw that advertisers have paused promotion through Twitter, which could result poorly for Musk if he is not able to make an effective content moderation policy.
“Twitter’s content moderation policies were designed to make money, but his attempt to soften those policies to promote free speech will leave Twitter in a worse place,” he said. “We have already seen that advertisers have become scared and have left the platform.”
Moreover, Musk had ideas of turning Twitter into the ‘X’ app, the everything social media app, but Iehl doesn’t expect much.
“I think that Twitter has extremely limited functionality and a small user base, so using Twitter to make an everything app is a bad idea,” he said.
Many people, like Iehl, have also made the claim that the richest man in the world should not be able to buy one of the biggest social media platforms, as that can be an example of a hostile corporate takeover.
“Billionaires can be incompetent and fumble their way through things and still be successful,” he said. “Musk embodies the rich man dilemma; he can survive while being totally clueless, but he’s not nearly as intelligent as he thought he was. I think he is scrambling.”
On the other hand, students like Howell feel that with Musk’s status, Twitter could see beneficial improvements.
“There is now someone with an already successful business running the company, so the policies could improve,” he said. “He has made statements about free speech, so maybe he’ll make it easier to state your opinions on the platform.”
As Twitter’s executives made the decision to accept the purchase price, Iehl has been proven wrong in thinking this was a hostile takeover.
“Musk realized buying was a bad idea, but because he had already signed a legally binding agreement, he had to continue with it,” he said. “The Twitter executives wanted him to buy more than he did.”
In the end, people simply have to wait and see how changes to the platform will affect its profit and user base. Howell remains hopeful that the app will succeed.
“Musk has the potential to make the platform better, but only time will tell,” he said.
By William Amel and Michael Hotter
Oshkosh West Index Volume 119 Issue III
November 28 2022