Musk, the "richest man in the world", completed the acquisition of Twitter last week, and quickly made a series of big moves, which attracted widespread attention from all walks of life.
According to reports, the relevant documents show that Twitter's board of directors has been dissolved, 9 directors have been "ousted", and Musk is currently the sole director of Twitter. It is reported that Musk's move is to further strengthen his control over Twitter. However, Musk tweeted that this was only "temporary."
Twitter's co-founder, Jack Dorsey, has transferred all of his 18 million shares to Musk's holdings of Twitter, worth nearly $978 million at a purchase price of $54.20 per share, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Jack reportedly left Twitter's board in May and has been supporting Musk's acquisition plan. Musk has previously repeatedly accused Twitter's former board of deliberately withholding evidence in court to obstruct its right to know.
↑ After Musk acquired Twitter, he was ready to make drastic reforms
The first round or 25% of the number of employees will be cut, and cronies will hold important positions
According to a person familiar with the matter, Musk's team is discussing the first round of layoffs, the first round or 25% of the staff, involving almost all departments.
Two Tesla executives said in interviews that Twitter's management and Musk's team met last week to detail the work of each department, details of Twitter's algorithm and the company's advertising business. Several other managers who attended the meeting said that Musk asked them for a list of good employees in the department, and they predicted that Musk would decide who went and who stayed in this way, but the timing and scope of the layoffs remained uncertain.
It is worth noting that according to US laws and regulations, if Musk wants to carry out large-scale layoffs, he must inform the government and employees in advance, but as of Monday, neither side has received notice.
While a large number of employees may be leaving, Musk has also brought his right-hand man to Twitter. It is reported that Musk brought 50 trusted software engineers and product owners to Twitter, and also made his cronies as Twitter executives.
One of Musk's cronies is investor Jason Caracanis, who recently changed his Twitter profile to "Chief Memorandum Officer."
↑ Twitter headquarters building welcomes a new head
Create an American version of WeChat to meet the daily consumption needs of users
According to relevant reports, Musk's team has met with marketers and advertisers several times recently to discuss how to change the content of Twitter to bring users a richer and more interesting service experience, and it is expected that Twitter will soon welcome a new product team.
In addition to consulting professionals, Musk did not forget to use his 110 million followers on Twitter to seek advice, and changed his profile from "chief tweet" to "Twitter complaint hotline officer". Late on Tuesday, local time, a Twitter user called on the platform to clear accounts that had been inactive for more than a year, and Musk later responded: "Definitely."
In early October, Musk posted that he bought Twitter to build it into a super app called "X", and said that "X" is essentially a "one-stop store" like China's WeChat, basically meeting the consumption needs of users in daily life.
In addition, Musk plans to set up a content moderation committee to rewrite Twitter's content moderation standards, but there have been no changes to that standard. He also said that he would not immediately unblock previously blocked accounts.
↑Musk responded to the question of charges: "We also need money to operate!" Twitter can't make money entirely from advertising. How about $8 a month? ”
Profit is key, and the verified account needs to be paid a monthly fee
It is reported that Musk's series of drastic reform measures are to increase Twitter's profits. Twitter hasn't turned a profit for 8 years in the last 10 years, and user growth has been slow. Although the digital advertising business now brings a certain amount of revenue, the situation is still not optimistic due to the impact of the global economic downturn.
According to reports, Musk intends to tie the subscription to the "Twitter Blue" service with Blue V authentication, while adjusting the price of the service to about $20 per month. It is reported that existing authenticated users have 90 days to choose, either pay a $20 monthly subscription fee, or will lose the "blue checkmark" certification mark on their avatar.
Musk has reportedly issued an ultimatum to employees to roll up and walk away if the service doesn't go live by the November 7 deadline.
As soon as the news was released, it was questioned by all parties, and then Musk tweeted a compromise: "We also need money to operate!" Twitter can't make money entirely from advertising. How about $8 a month? ”
It is reported that this move will raise two problems. First, Blue V certified Twitter users are generally celebrities, politicians, journalists and other public figures, and some "important people" even appear on lists published by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Twitter illegally collects their money. The second problem is that the change would create some tax problems and could be countered by U.S. regulators.
Musk's second move to increase revenue is to bring the social software Vine back. Vine is a short-form video software launched in 2012 and acquired by Twitter the same year. The software has been called the "originator of short videos", but was forced to close down in 2016 due to lack of competitiveness. Since then, many users have been nostalgic for it, and some analysts say Musk may have taken a fancy to this and hoped to increase the company's profits.
↑ Musk launched Vine social software return investigation on Twitter
Red Star News reporter Fan Xu intern Liang Hong
Editor Wang He Responsible Editor Wei Kongming
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