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- Elon Musk has finally decided to share the Twitter mess he created with another person.
- The billionaire's new CEO has been chosen to succeed him. But the mess that they will have to deal with is enormous.
- The company is facing revenue challenges, advertising concerns and an identity crises.
Elon Musk has been waiting a long while to finally do this: he is about to give his Twitter mess over to someone else.
The billionaire announced on Thursday that he has hired a new chief executive officer to run the social media company. The only clue is that it could be a woman who takes over from Musk within six weeks.
It's unclear at this point who could be the candidate. CNBC reported that Linda Yaccarino is a frontrunner. She's an advertising executive, who recently resigned her position at NBCUniversal.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Yaccarino is in discussions with Twitter about taking on the role.
No matter who is the new CEO, he or she will have a mess to clean up after Musk's chaotic tenure at the company.
Five big challenges
Musk's $44 billion takeover has been a bumpy ride. His successor faces four major challenges.
First, let's look at Twitter's financial situation. Musk's takeover was partly fueled by a $13 Billion debt package, which has left Twitter with a heavy financial burden. Musk said that Twitter was just weeks away from bankruptcy when he took over, and revenue became a priority.
Any new CEO will have to find a way to turn Twitter into a revenue machine. The company's earnings for 2021 – the last full year results before it is delisted – showed that they were hugely losing with a loss of $221.4 millions.
Musk has taken new measures to help improve the situation by getting users to pay more for services such as verification. Musk gives away blue checks as a free service due to the low take-up of the subscription service. His successor will therefore need backup plans. Uncertainty surrounds how much money Musk made so far.
Second, the CEO will have to fight for advertisers. This battle will be decisive as Twitter enters the Tucker Carlson era.
This week, the former Fox News host who was fired last month announced that he will be launching a show on Twitter. This could prove to be a double-edged blade for Twitter's chief, given his reputation for controversy.
Carlson is likely to be followed on Twitter by the approximately 3 million viewers that tune in each night to his Fox News show. This is a big win for the company.
The advertisers' patience will be tested if Carlson's broadsides become conspiratorial or vitriolic. A month after Musk took over, half of Twitter's 100 top advertisers paused their ads. The same thing could happen again.
The third challenge is the competition. Musk's tendency to irritate people has led opportunists, who are prone to rubbing them the wrong way, to identify the frustration that users and advertisers had in recent weeks by introducing rival platforms.
Mastodon, an uncentralized social media service, has struggled to draw significant numbers due to its slowness and lengthy waitlist. Some, however, have proven more effective.
Bluesky has an estimated 2 million-person waitlist. It is backed up by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, and already has a large user base that includes Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rep. Robert Garcia, and others.
Substack's newsletter platform, on the other hand, launched a Twitter style feature called Notes and has gained a fan base from former Musk confidants like journalist Matt Taibbi.
Twitter's CEO is well aware of the dangers these platforms present. Carlson, or his guests on the new Twitter show he is launching, could cause users to flock away from Twitter and towards other platforms.
Musk is the fourth challenge. Many employees were not happy with the billionaire's decision to create a "hardcore culture" at his company. He plans to retain control in his role as chief technology officer and executive chair, even though he has relinquished CEO duties.
Musk's outsized influence will place pressure on the last challenge: deciding exactly what Twitter is. Musk's chaotic moderation and verification approach has made news organizations cold, despite the fact that they are at Twitter's core.
NPR's Twitter account, which was labeled "state-affiliated Media" by its Twitter account, has not tweeted since the 12th of April. Twitter's CEO, if news organizations continue to be maligned by the media, will have an identity crisis.
They can only hope that whoever replaces Musk doesn't make things worse. In six weeks, anything can happen.
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By: hchowdhury@insider.com (Hasan Chowdhury)
Title: Elon Musk is handing a truckload of mess to Twitter’s new CEO
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-ceo-mess-key-challenges-2023-5
Published Date: Fri, 12 May 2023 13:29:56 +0000
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