Back in April last year, as Elon Musk came close to completing his deal to take over Twitter, I scoffed at the idea anyone would quit because he owned the company. I thought we were all too addicted, that there was not a viable alternative and was totally unconvinced he would try and implement major changes, at least for a while. Ultimately, I thought everything would carry on how it had, both good and bad.
Fair to say I was… not right… about any of that. Indeed, I am now one of the people (mostly) abandoning the platform, having previously been a very heavy user of it. There we are. Mea culpa complete.
The product decisions being made have been bad. There was the terrible decision to devalue Twitter as a news platform, for instance, reducing its usefulness to power users. Now, amidst controversies around antisemitic conspiracies and Nazis, it seems advertisers are issuing a “do not resuscitate” order for Twitter.
While big companies kept paying for ads, Twitter could function, even as the product declined. Now, amidst controversy and lawsuits, some of the world’s biggest firms have pulled advertising. These include Apple, Disney and Ubisoft. Ad Age reported that, in total, 7 percent of the US ad revenue coming into Twitter is currently on ice. That figure may well be going up and there is no way subscriptions are ever going to fill the gap.
Meanwhile, Threads continues to gain traction, including the launch of various POTUS/White House accounts.
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