Elon Musk has offered some more insight into his evolving plan for Twitter, which is able to now additionally see the corporate embark on a hiring push, after firing 65% of its workforce, with the intention to get in additional growth and engineering expertise to assist understand Musk’s grand imaginative and prescient.
And with that, Musk has put collectively a brand new pitch deck, of types, which goals to make clear his present plan. Which, as famous, is evolving rapidly, so it could find yourself being completely totally different, it could be indicative – we don’t know for positive as but.
However he’s slowly clarifying and honing in on particular parts.
Right here’s a take a look at the gathering of slides that Musk has put collectively to current his present strategic define for the app.
As you may see on this first slide, Musk’s presentation reveals that new account sign-ups are at an all-time excessive, with the chart going again to 2014.
I’m unsure what meaning in isolation. Positively, that would imply that extra persons are eager to get in on Twitter dialog, and with Fb getting stale, and Instagram struggling an id disaster, Twitter is seemingly changing into a extra fascinating consideration.
However it will even be price noting the place these new sign-ups are coming from. Are these US customers, perhaps freedom of speech-ers signing as much as Elon’s new, extra open public sq.? Are these customers in growing markets, as has been Twitter’s predominant growth trend for the past three years, as US utilization has stagnated?
Might this be scammers signing up for lots extra accounts in a short time – as a result of with the intention to qualify for Twitter Blue, and get a blue checkmark, accounts should have been lively for at least 90 days prior?
It’s a stat, for positive, however with out additional context, it’s arduous to make any conclusion on what it means.
The subsequent chart is Consumer Lively Minutes, which can also be at an all-time excessive.
That’s fascinating – primarily based on this chart, divided by the present variety of lively customers, which Musk has additionally shared, the typical Twitter person is now spending 31.5 minutes per day within the app.
That’s not radically totally different than what’s been previously reported, although some stories have prompt Twitter utilization has declined significantly in recent times. These numbers truly reinforce that, with Twitter’s session time down within the low teenagers (seemingly) until 2021, then rising once more of late – although I believe the decrease chart is meant to say ‘November 2022’ on the backside proper.
Principally, the info reveals that Twitter is again at its earlier utilization ranges, after dropping its method for a while. Which isn’t shocking given Musk’s capability to spark controversy and dialogue.
There are additionally some extra questionable charts that present a decline in hate speech:
Word that the qualifier right here is tweets ‘with 1+ slur’ from a curated listing, and a ‘Toxicity rating’ of 0.91 or increased. It is a little obscure and lacks the total context of what this represents.
There’s additionally this:
Which simply reveals that much more individuals had been partaking in impersonation within the app when Twitter began permitting them to buy Blue verification ticks, then, when Twitter pulled the $8 verification plan, fewer impersonations had been reported.
Like, yeah, you opened the door for them to rip-off individuals with deceptive verified accounts, in order that they took benefit, and now they’re not, as a result of they’ll’t. At the very least till Twitter re-launches the $8 verification plan next week.
Musk then additionally shared this overview of his present roadmap, which is just about a re-angling of Twitter’s present options.
‘Promoting as leisure’ makes use of an instance of an automatic sampling script to create a extra partaking advert expertise (‘like this tweet and I’ll present you which ones home you belong to primarily based in your tweets’). Undecided if Musk is suggesting that that is one thing Twitter shall be providing as an advert instrument, however to this point, all these activations have been created by model companions, in collaboration with Twitter. If Twitter does transfer to make this an precise advert characteristic, that may very well be troublesome to scale.
Word that Twitter additionally launched Branded Likes, a associated advert engagement possibility, again in June.
The subsequent body, as you may see, simply says video with a randomized instance
Undecided precisely what this implies, however Musk has flagged allowing longer video clips to be attached to tweets, whereas he’s additionally speaking a few creator monetization program, which might supply a extra helpful income share than YouTube’s 45/55 break up.
Musk additionally factors to Twitter’s soon-to-be-launched encrypted DMs, which app researcher Jane Manchun Wong has found are being constructed on the Signal Protocol.
Encrypted DMs are quick changing into the usual, with Meta additionally integrating full encryption across Messenger, Instagram Direct and WhatsApp. That’s raised the hackles of many legislation enforcement teams, who say that it will supply safety for criminals, however it’s going to additionally present extra safety, and assurance, for normal customers.
There’s additionally Longform Tweets, for which Musk has shared a screenshot of Twitter Notes, which has been in growth over the previous yr.
Notes allows you to create posts of as much as 2,500 phrases, that are then natively embedded into the Twitter app for straightforward sharing.
Then there’s the revamped $8 verification plan, which I’ve shared my thoughts on here.
Oh, and funds:
No examples right here, however primarily based on Musk’s previous statements, it looks as if he’s trying to observe the identical sport plan with funds that numerous different apps have already tried. You begin off by facilitating funds transfers between accounts, enabling fee-free remittance, a key profit in growing markets. Then, as soon as persons are already shifting cash within the app, you supply extra methods to make use of it, through in-app purchases, invoice funds, banking, and so on.
That is Musk’s massive, overarching plan to make Twitter a extra vital app – however as famous, numerous others have tried, and the regulatory hurdles alone have made it a nightmare to enact.
Perhaps Musk can have higher luck in shifting issues ahead, but it surely’s an enormous problem, which is able to take time – which can also be why there’s no instance picture for this as but.
After all, the point out of funds will even hearth up all of the crypto fans, who view Musk as a key chief in mainstreaming crypto funds. That undoubtedly received’t be occurring, however I believe that that is one more reason why Musk has left this slide clean, to supply a glimmer of hope to his fanatical fan base.
Which is what Elon does finest. Query his enterprise and mental acumen all you need, however he positive does know the right way to get consideration, which is actually probably the most invaluable, tangible talent that he brings to any undertaking. He’s a strolling PR machine, who’s now been given the keys to his personal platform hundreds of thousands of customers, and it’s fairly clear that he’s having fun with the eye he now instructions as Twitter-in-chief.
The subsequent query then is, what number of media methods does Elon have up his sleeve?
He’s enabling everybody to purchase a blue tick, he’s brought back Trump, he’s unbanning a heap of previously banned accounts, all below the guise of facilitating free speech.
Every of those actions has sparked its personal media cycle, and introduced a heap extra consideration to Musk and Twitter in consequence, however when the stunts run out, what then?
Can Musk preserve arising with extra attention-grabbing modifications on the app, or will this roadmap truly result in a extra sustainable enterprise, enabling him to cease grabbing headlines, and depart Twitter to its personal gadgets?
In essence, that’s what these utilization charts present, that Musk is actually good at getting consideration.
However it’s what comes after that may make or break the enterprise.
Oh, additionally, somebody has prompt that the tweet character rely should be expanded to 420 instead of the current 280. Given Musk’s affinity for this quantity, that’ll most likely occur.
