Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover was one of the major highlights of 2022. The tech billionaire and Tesla chief started acquiring a substantial stake in the social media giant at the start of 2022. This succeeded with a $44 billion takeover offer while taking the company private. Just a few months later, Elon tried to back out of the deal and got sued by Twitter.
The Elon Musk Twitter saga finally concluded with an acquisition in October 2022 as the judge was about to force Elon Musk to close the deal. Elon Musk recently admitted the effect of court proceedings in an interview with BBC. However, despite the hiccups, SpaceX’s boss called the acquisition the right thing to do.
Due to the drama that preceded the acquisition and several Elon Musk Tweets on the topic, public interest in Twitter increased a lot. The independent research firm Apptopia reported that the average daily downloads of Twitter in the US increased by 42% after Musk’s takeover. Nevertheless, many analysts believe that the increased interest in Twitter is only due to the curiosity surrounding the takeover and might fade away with time.
Twitter currently boasts 354 million active users on the platform, out of which around 260 million log on every day. Based on the research by ExpressVPN, the number of active users is projected to fall by 33 million in 2023. The main reasons behind this forecast are the growing technical problems and the controversy plaguing the platform.
Nonetheless, the company’s CEO is confident about growth, and a recent Elon Musk tweet indicated that the company was already close to breakeven. Since becoming the company’s CEO, Elon Musk has often been seen tweeting about the major policy changes on the platform.
The USA has the most number of users on Twitter, with Japan and India at the 2nd and 3rd places, respectively. If the projections are correct, the social media giant may lose 3.6 million users this year in its biggest market, i.e., the US. The number of users in the UK, which is currently the sixth largest market, is also forecasted to decline by 5% across all age groups.
Before Elon Musk Twitter acquisition, Twitter was already struggling to make both ends meet. After becoming the CEO of the social media platform, Elon’s first priority was to reduce the headcount. The layoffs slashed the company’s headcount from its 2021 peak of 7,500 to only 1,800. This was even less than the total number of employees on the tweet platform in 2012.
In conclusion, Elon Musk Twitter takeover has been “quite a rollercoaster,” as explained by the eccentric billionaire in his latest BBC interview. Musk has taken several key steps to put the company back on track which has resulted in an increased interest in the platform. However, only time will tell whether the increase in user activity on Twitter is permanent or just a fad.
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