The soap opera called Twitter continues, in which the only leading actor is always Elon Musk. Tesla and Space X CEO acquired the social platform for 44 billion dollars, implementing a series of decidedly controversial maneuvers. Despite the tsunami of layoffs, the paid blue ticks, the bans to those who allow themselves to impersonate him and the mass exodus on MastodonMusk seems to be decidedly optimistic.
The billionaire has in fact published a post – a tweet of course – in which he states that “Twitter usage is at an all-time high”. He also added “let’s hope the servers hold up”.
“Elon Musk on Twitter is like a car accident: dramatic but everyone stops to watch”
The research company Apptopia reports that in fact the average daily downloads of the Twitter app and the average daily usage have both increased following the acquisition. Adam Blacker, Apptopia’s director of content, compared the phenomenon to a car accident. “It’s like a car accident on the highway – he said – it’s dramatic, but people like to stop and watch.”
According to reports from the Financial Times daily growth of Twitter users reached “all-time highs” following the acquisition of Elon Musk. An official investor report indicates that the monetizable daily growth of social media users is also increased by more than 20% compared to a year ago. In the second quarter of 2022, Twitter registered 237.8 million monetizable daily users, with a growth of 16.6% on an annual basis.
The prospects for the future are far from bright
Despite these encouraging data, the waters Twitter is getting into are anything but calm. The company is firing thousands of employees (about 50% of total employees) e it is losing numerous advertisers. Some of these have suspended advertising on the platform due to concerns about Elon Musk’s controversial maneuvers.
MIT Technology Review, citing a report by Bot Sentinel, reveals that more than 1.3 million users have left Twitter after the acquisition.
In addition to those who are leaving the platform (with a boom in Mastodon memberships), there are the suspended and blocked accounts. In recent days Musk had stated that anyone who impersonated someone else on the platform, without specifying that it is a parody, would be blocked. And the promises have come true. Starting yesterday, the first bans started, which also involved celebrities from the show business such as Kathy Griffin, Sarah Silverman, rich summer and the former NFL star Chris Kluwe.