Nicely, we had run, of us. No, wait, sorry – it was a catastrophically dangerous run, a rollercoaster with out brakes that brought about all types of varied chaos and distress for individuals who simply needed to, you realize, use Twitter like a standard social media platform.
Twitter proprietor and chief govt Elon Musk has introduced in a tweet (due to course he did it in a tweet) that he plans to step down as CEO of the social media large, revealing that his alternative – an unnamed girl – might be taking on in round six weeks’ time.
Excited to announce that I’ve employed a brand new CEO for X/Twitter. She might be beginning in ~6 weeks!My position will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software program & sysops.May 11, 2023
Musk added that he plans to stay round in an operational capability, being “exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software program & sysops”. That feels like various stuff, however then once more, Musk didn’t precisely do a lot as Twitter’s CEO both – aside from costing himself $24 billion dollars, I assume.
There have been rumblings that Musk was searching for a alternative for some time now, and Tesla shareholders have reportedly been placing stress on him to focus extra on the electrical automobile agency than Twitter, so this isn’t totally unsurprising. In line with CNBC, Tesla shares jumped 2% instantly after the announcement.
Ought to I keep or ought to I’m going?
I’m not satisfied, although. Keep in mind when Musk posted a Twitter poll saying he’d step down as CEO if the consumer base voted for him to go? We voted him out, and he wormed his means out of that one by blaming bots and saying that he’d restrict Twitter polls to customers subscribed to Twitter Blue (which he hasn’t carried out).
The straightforward reality is that the self-styled Tony Stark hasn’t actually abided by lots of the issues he’s stated he would since purchasing Twitter for $44 billion again in October 2022. We’ve seen lots of issues promised which haven’t materialized – although I hope a few of his plans by no means see the sunshine of day, like his invasive plans for cellphone name performance that threaten to make Twitter unusable for women.
It’s telling that he refers back to the social media platform as ‘X/Twitter’ in his announcement. Musk has made no secret of his want to make Twitter (or ‘X’ as he needs it to be recognized) the ‘all the pieces app’, folding quite a lot of options into it as a part of a daring reimagining that, uh, basically just copies WhatsApp.
X gon’ give it to ya
If Musk really is handing over the reins to a brand new CEO then his tweet suggests he’s going to be focusing much less on operating the enterprise aspect of issues and extra on the software program aspect; which means he might lastly push by means of the transition to ‘X’ that he so desperately needs.
Is that actually factor, although? Musk merely hasn’t been in a position to make the social media app worthwhile, regardless of makes an attempt to force users to pay for Twitter Blue and squeeze businesses to access the Twitter API.
In reality, Elon has been driving the positioning additional and additional into the bottom – due, partially, to a elementary misunderstanding of what made Twitter interesting within the first place. His addition of 10,000-character-long tweets (just for customers who cough up the money for Blue, thoughts) demonstrates a complete ignorance of Twitter’s core enchantment: social media diminished to bitesize, simply digestible chunks.
In a world the place nearly each social media platform is step by step morphing into the identical homogeneous blur of ten-second video reels manufactured to maximise engagement, Twitter stands out as one thing totally different, one thing distinctive. Musk has been threatening to wreck that, and his transferring over to a extra operational position relatively than the corporate’s figurehead might truly be a foul factor for the way forward for Twitter.
As for who’ll be sitting within the CEO chair, there are suspicions floating round (as reported by The Verge) that Musk’s alternative might be NBC promoting exec Linda Yaccarino, who reportedly needs the job and will get alongside nicely with the Tesla CEO. I don’t wish to get overly political right here, however Yaccarino is seemingly a certified Trump supporter… I’m certain that may go down nicely on Twitter.
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