Elon Musk to Twitter employees: “the economic picture is dire”

Elon Musk, the new head of Twitter, informed employees of the social network about the company’s difficult financial situation, saying that “the economic picture is dire.” 

Elon Musk says Twitter may not survive an economic recession

According to reports, it appears that Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk contacted the company’s employees and sent them an initial email showing his critical remarks on the social network’s economic picture. 

Basically, Musk described that economic picture as “dire,” further specifying that Twitter may not survive the impending economic recession. 

This rather dubious prediction about the company’s future stems from the fact that the social network is heavily dependent on advertising, something that may still be too vulnerable in this time of “economic crisis.” 

In this regard, Elon Musk wrote:

“Frankly, the economic picture ahead is dire. […] 70% of our advertising is brand, rather than specific performance, which makes us doubly vulnerable. […] Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn.”

The world’s richest man also said that bankruptcy and failure is not ruled out for Twitter’s future. 

Elon Musk removes smart-working for Twitter employees

To address this problem, Musk has introduced new Twitter policies, removing smart working.

Starting Thursday, all employees of the social network will have to be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours per week, except in cases where they are physically unable to travel or have critical personal obligations.

This new work mode is supposed to be a response to the demand for intense work to succeed that Musk sees for Twitter. 

Not only that, Musk reportedly held an emergency meeting with Twitter employees last Wednesday, but afterward, the company’s two executives, Robin Wheeler and Yoel Roth, resigned.

The social network’s new Plans for doing business, including crypto

During the past week, Musk outlined his new plans for the social network to do business, also including crypto. Basically, the new owner wants Twitter to become “an app for everything.” 

Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months.

We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022

“Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.”

Among the new actions that Musk wants to introduce to increase the company’s revenue are earnings from content creators and the introduction of video into the social network (a business segment mastered by competitor TikTok). 

Not only that, in the future Twitter could also process payments with debit cards and linked bank accounts, somewhat like what happens with PayPal (a company co-founded by Musk himself). 

Another innovation in the pipeline could also be the introduction of new roles for cryptocurrencies within the social network. The CEO of Binance, Changpeng CZ Zhao, has already held AMA sessions on Twitter anticipating how crypto could be integrated into the social network and, in that sense, could be supportive of such an initiative. 

The billionaire’s vision toward Twitter as an “app for everything” takes inspiration from WeChat, the Chinese social media platform used by more than a billion people to find news, hail cabs, and order food. 

Priority on the issue of Twitter Blue subscriptions

In his email to employees, Musk addressed the topic of Twitter Blue subscriptions again, under an angle of increasing the social network’s revenue. 

In this regard, he wrote: 

“That is why the priority over the past ten days has been to develop and launch Twitter Blue Verified subscriptions.”

And indeed, in his new business plans for Twitter, Musk reportedly doubled the cost of the Twitter Blue subscription from the previous $5 per month to the current $8 per month. 

However, even here, it appears that there are problems with the new subscription policy. The email allegedly mentioned too many corrupt checkmarks for Legacy Blue ‘verification,’ even proposing the removal of Legacy Blue in the coming months. 

Mass layoffs to Twitter employees

In addition to wanting to remove smart-working, Elon Musk had recently executed a mass layoff at what are now former Twitter employees. 

An action that would have saved the company several costs, as the losses counted were more than $4 million per day.

In contrast, former employees joined in a class action lawsuit against the social network’s CEO. 

The mass layoff counted a workforce reduction of 7,500 people. Something that is by no means new for Musk, as he also executed the same mass layoff last June 2022 at his other company Tesla.