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Twitter | 2021 The Future 50

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Twitter

Twitter | 2021 The Future 50 | Fortune

Steve Mollman

Elon Musk gives Twitter employees details on ‘very significant’ stock awards after relentless layoffs, cost-cutting: Report

/2023/03/25/elon-musk-gives-twitter-employees-details-on-stock-awards-after-relentless-layoffs-cost-cutting/

Chloe Berger

Twitter employees woke up to a 2:30 a.m. email from Elon Musk. ‘The office is not optional’

/2023/03/24/return-to-office-elon-musk-twitter-tesla-layoffs/

Eamon Barrett

How an incoming CEO can earn the trust of legacy employees 

/2023/03/24/how-an-incoming-ceo-can-earn-the-trust-of-legacy-employees/

Prarthana Prakash

‘There were a couple of Tweets and then this thing went down’: Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser says a social media bank run on SVB is a ‘complete game changer’

/2023/03/23/citigroup-jane-fraser-social-media-bank-run-on-svb-twitter/

Since Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, users have flocked to the alternative social network.

Can Mastodon dethrone Twitter?

Tech

Welcome to Fortune tech debate where we debate the topic of the day in two minutes today, we're talking about twitter and mastodon. I'm here with David Mayor David, I'm wondering, do you think that mastodon can overtake twitter and popularity? Well that's certainly the ambition that was expressed to me by Eugene, Roscoe, mastodons founder when I interviewed him last week And certainly he's got reason to be bullish mastodons grown from 300,000 active users to more than 2.5 million in the months since Elon Musk took over Twitter. So clearly there are a lot of Twitter users who are leaving for Mastodon or at least tentatively setting up there a lot of academics, but I think there's probably a bit too much technical friction for the average person to, to shift over anytime soon. I agree it was hard for me as a tech reporter to even sign up, so I agree that the general population is gonna have a hard time making that switch to something that's a little less easy to use on twitter and I think twitter has that draw of being very dramatic right now, it's in the news, everyone is drawn to see what everyone else is talking about. So I think it's gonna be hard for people to leave twitter to begin with. I don't think any of these platforms that we're seeing right now, like we had a hive post news uh, mastodon, I don't know if any of these platforms are gonna be able to overtake twitter right now. Yeah, and I think there's nothing wrong with that necessarily. I think people might just hive off to different high above two different social networks where they've got perhaps different vibes, perhaps twitter will change. Perhaps the bible change there as well. There's all sorts of regulatory issues that it's, it's going to be facing if it carries on the path it's on now and if Elon gives up sells it may be the new owners would decide. Let's change the vibe here. If he sells it to effective management who see the potential twitter has, which it does have tons of potential obviously. Um we'll see if it can bounce back. But at its current rate it's a lot of people are leaving. I don't think everyone's gonna leave but I think that as you said that a lot of people are gonna be straddling these different forms, these different platforms and giving their user names early on these platforms um trying them out. But unfortunately we are out of time for today. So if you want to see more to activate, please go to Fortune dot com

So far things aren’t going so well for the platform under Musk’s leadership.

Does Elon Musk have a Twitter long game?

Welcome to fortune tech debate where we discussed the topic of the day in two minutes. I'm data sheet writer Jacob Carpenter here with news reporter christian headliner today. We're discussing what else but Elon musk and twitter, so christian, how do you think it's gone so far? Not well, whether we're talking about an increase in hate speech or advertisers threatening to pull out, um, there hasn't been a lot of evidence to suggest things are moving in the right direction that said, uh, Elon Musk, I think it was also more or less forced into this deal since the court effectively, uh, you know, required him to move forward on his $44 billion dollar contract. Yeah, I think part of what's strange is it just doesn't seem like there's a coherent plan here. I mean we've seen, you know, some discussions and proposals around things like charging for verification around rebooting vine, creating an only fans type of system where creators can charge to view a video and so it just doesn't feel like there's a plan. Um, but what do you kind of you as a long term prospects here? Well, I think, you know, like I said, that is a result of him basically been forced to do this deal at the last second. He wanted to pull out? I think in the, in the meantime you sort of come out with this idea that it should be arrival to china, we chat, which pretty much everyone in that country at some point in their day uses. I think that's a sensible business plan. I think there's a lot of support for that from certain parts of the U. S. Community. But ultimately, you know, this would take years before it could create something like that. Well, and that's the one thing you can say about Elon musk is that he's not afraid to try different things. He's certainly not afraid to shake things up, especially given all these layoffs. And so the guy will innovate, the guy will try something different. The question is whether he can execute on that. Yes, absolutely. I think part of the problem is that he's been encouraged by far too many people in the Silicon Valley community that whatever he touches turns to gold and this is fundamentally different business from Tesla or from SpaceX. This is a software, this is a social media platform you can't compare it to. Well that's all the time we have today. Head to Fortune dot com for more tech debate.

Leading women discuss how companies are trying to do more to build inclusive workplaces and create a workforce that reflects its community.

Most Powerful Women: Leveling the Playing Field

Conferences

Leading women discuss how companies are trying to build inclusive workplaces and create a workforce that reflects its community.

Fortune’s Chris Morris and Will Daniel discuss on Tech Debate.

Elon Musk doesn’t want Twitter, but what would the platform look like with him in charge?

What would Twitter look like with Elon Musk in charge?


Elon Musk doesn’t want Twitter, but what would the platform look like with him in charge?


Hey, welcome to Fortune tech debate where we discuss the issues of the day in two minutes today we're talking about twitter, Elon musk is facing a court battle that may force him to buy the social media company even though he says he's not interested in doing so anymore. Well assuming that happens, what do you think the new twitter looks like? You know, interestingly enough, musk has said that he's considering making twitter into a quote accurate, relevant and not totally depressing news source, but you know, his comments kind of leave more questions and answers really because we pay reporters to create content for twitter and and if he does, does that open them up to lawsuits under the section 2 30 of the communications decency act And you know, other social media giants have fought for years to keep their uh companies considered as platforms rather than publishers. So I just ultimately, I think musk is stuck in a situation of buyer's remorse and he's just gonna struggle to turn twitter into a profitable firm. I think one of the things that you have to consider though is that trust in major media and news outlets is declining these days. Uh Abc Fox CNN all of them are lower in the recent survey by the american customer satisfaction index. Twitter though is up 11%. It had the biggest gain of any company. So there might be something into combining the two schools of thought. Yeah, I mean I think you made a good point like seven and 10 twitter users in the United States said they got their news from the platform according to a 2021 Pew Research poll. So there's definitely a market there. But I wonder with ad spend slowing and the economy moving into recession. If it's really the right move for twitter to turn to becoming a content publisher. Yeah, well no one has ever gotten rich at least recently owning a media company and Elon musk hasn't really shown a lot of patience for things like that. There is one more thing that we need to think talk about and that is Elon musk himself. He hasn't shown a lot of patience for opposing viewpoints and we saw that at SpaceX, Could that be a problem here? Yeah, I mean I think any time the ceo of a publisher is criticizing politicians or economists publicly then it's going to be an issue for your objectivity. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see how if twitter does become a publisher, how objective they can be. Yeah. Alright, well that's gonna have to leave it there, that's all the time we have today. Come back to Fortune dot com for more tech debate

Year	Revenues ($M)	Profits ($M)
2019	$3,295	$2,355
2017	$2,455	$-448

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