from Hacker News

Musk fired 80% of Twitter and everyone thought that Twitter was doomed

by runningmike on 6/10/24, 7:46 PM with 12 comments

  • by DamnYuppie on 6/10/24, 8:12 PM

    Disclosure: I am not a financial analyst of any form. I did some searching and found the following: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitter-statistics/

    If this data is accurate it is saying that advertising revenue has fallen from $4.5 Billion in 2021 to $2.5 Billion in 2023. In a vacuum that type of decline isn't something I would be celebrating. I have heard that they would be profitable in 2024. So I looked up their last Annual report, https://seekingalpha.com/filings/pdf/14719987, and it says in 2020 their "Total costs and expenses" were $3,689,691 with the biggest line item being R&D of $1,366,388. So it actually could be that they have lost revenue but are now profitable due to lower expenses mainly related to head count.

    The question then becomes is the decline in revenue due to fewer employees or how Musk has positioned X and or behaved that has turned off advertisers? Some quick reading of the first link above shows that usage doesn't look to have declined since he took over.

  • by r721 on 6/10/24, 8:25 PM

    >After the right-sizing, Twitter has rolled out more features than they ever could before.

    People keep saying this, but what are they? Community Notes were introduced before Musk, exposing internal impressions' stats is kind of a trivial feature, just as boosting paid blue checks in replies. Maybe Spaces (I don't use that)?

  • by kbf on 6/11/24, 3:52 AM

    The company might still be around, but the product has suffered major damage. I’ve been hopelessly addicted to Twitter for a long time, and couldn’t get myself to stop using it after the sale even if it went against my morals. But over time the site just got so unusably bad that I eventually couldn’t put up with it anymore and the problem solved itself.

  • by not1ofU on 6/10/24, 7:59 PM

  • by laweijfmvo on 6/10/24, 8:07 PM

    People will say Twitter failed because advertisers pulled out of spite, but that doesn't change the fact that Musk overpaid for it trying to make a meme. Smart business guy.

  • by jqpabc123 on 6/10/24, 8:12 PM

    Firing 80% of the employees coincided with a comparable drop in stock value.

    Management master class of the decade? Certainly debatable but I suspect Musk would prefer to have the stock value back.

  • by wkat4242 on 6/10/24, 11:35 PM

    Uhm so Twitter isn't doomed?

    I mean it still runs but it's more toxic than ever.