SpaceX, Twitter and electric automobile maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks on as he speaks during his visit on the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair on the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, on June 16, 2023. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP) (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)
Alain Jocard | Afp | Getty Images
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who can also be CTO and executive chairman of Twitter, said early Saturday morning that money flow stays negative on the social media company due to a virtually 50% drop in promoting revenue coupled with “heavy debt.”
“Need to achieve positive money flow before we’ve the luxurious of anything,” Musk wrote in response to a tweet.
Musk took over Twitter in October of last 12 months in a deal valued at around $44 billion, including about $13 billion in debt. He sold billions of dollars price of his Tesla shares partly to finance that deal.
By January, lots of of advertisers had reduced or halted their ad spending on Twitter in response to Musk making steep staff cuts at the corporate, and implementing changes to the platform, especially restoring previously banned accounts and changing its approach to content moderation.
In April, Musk told a BBC reporter that “just about all” advertisers had resumed buying ads on Twitter. He also claimed at the moment that the corporate was “roughly breakeven,” and expected to grow to be money flow positive inside the subsequent quarter.
His statement about Twitter’s money flow problems today comes a bit over one month since Linda Yaccarino, who previously ran global promoting for Comcast’s NBCUniversal, took on the role of Twitter CEO. NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
Yaccarino’s appointment inspired hope amongst media industry insiders that Twitter would address immediate challenges to its ad business.
In recent days, Twitter began doling out a share of its ad revenue to pick content creators on its platform. Musk’s remarks were made in response to followers who desired to know why that revenue-sharing program was so limited in scope.
A variety of widely followed accounts on Twitter posted that they were dismayed they didn’t qualify to earn income from this system yet. As The Verge previously reported, the revenue-sharing program was available only to users who paid for a Twitter Blue verified subscription, and amounts paid were “driven by ads placed within the replies to tweets.”
Influencer Andrew Tate — who espouses misogynistic views online, and faces a trial on charges of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in Romania — posted that Twitter paid him greater than $20,000. Tate has sued the accusers who made those charges.
Several right-wing influencers also posted about receiving Twitter payments, together with fans and promoters of Tesla stock and products, including Omar Qazi (who uses the handle “@WholeMarsBlog” on Twitter) and Sawyer Merritt, who each posted about netting greater than $5,000.
Mainstream and other influencers who shared details about their Twitter income included Brian and Ed Krassenstein, Mr. Beast and the account @interneth0f (which stands for Web Hall of Fame). The Web Hall of Fame posts screenshots of other people’s popular posts from social media and re-circulates them.
It isn’t clear how much Twitter paid creators in total in this primary round of payments. Twitter sent an automatic reply with a crude symbol in response to CNBC’s request for comment on Saturday. The parent company of Twitter, X Corp., is facing myriad lawsuits from former employees and vendors over non-payment of bills and severance.
