Twitter has been experiencing significant changes over the past few weeks. After the official takeover of the social platform by Elon Musk, uncertainty clouds the app. Elon Musk’s first action as Twitter’s CEO was to fire several Twitter executives including its former CEO. Subsequently, he fired almost 50% of the company’s workforce. Some of these employees are in court claiming that Musk’s action did not follow the law. Elon Musk claims that Twitter was losing $4 million daily, thus, the reduction in the workforce is very important. In addition, official Twitter verification now costs $8 monthly. Musk says this new law is here to stay and nothing will change. Analysts claim that Musk is handling Twitter like a startup. However, since most startups fail, Musk is gradually ruining the company.
However, Elon Musk is a business expert behind several successful companies like PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX. Although Twitter has been in chaos recently, third-party statistics show that Twitter users do not seem to mind. They do not really care about the new style of the new boss, Elon Musk. The latest statistics show that Twitter’s download and usage have significantly grown since his takeover.
Twitter downloads rise
According to market research firm Apptopia, the average daily downloads of Twitter have risen sharply in recent days. The average daily downloads in November were up 28% compared to the previous month. The downloads were up 46% compared to September this year. Data shows that on November 3, the Twitter client was downloaded 637,000 times by users. This is the highest single-day download since May and about twice the single-day download in June. It is worth mentioning that on the evening of November 3, Musk began to lay off employees on a large scale. Over the next few days, thousands of employees lost their jobs.
On November 6, according to Apptopia’s statistics, the daily downloads of the Twitter client show 555,000 times. On that day, its daily active users also set an all-time record. It has a total of 245.4 million people using the software around the world that day. In terms of daily active users, the previous record was 243.3 million, which occurred on June 8 this year.
Musk has clearly noticed the growth in Twitter’s user base. He recently tweeted that since the news of his acquisition of Twitter was announced, the app has seen a significant increase in users around the world. In another tweet, Musk explains the reason for adjusting the membership’s official certification. Users can pay a certain fee to purchase this additional service and authenticate their accounts. He claims that the new fee will encourage users to interact and communicate more on the platform.
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New users are very optimistic
How many of Twitter’s newly attracted user groups can stay online for a long time and become permanent users? This is still unknown. However, Adam Blacker, director of content at the research firm Apptopia, speculates that many newcomers have downloaded the Twitter client recently. He claims that they may want to see what will happen to Twitter under new boss Musk.
The last time the Twitter platform saw a spike in usage was in April of this year. At the time, Musk and Twitter jointly announced a $44 billion acquisition deal. Surprisingly, Musk later repented and wanted to withdraw from the deal. This eventually led to a legal battle between Twitter and Musk, who later decided to buy Twitter at the original price.
It appears that new users are optimistic about Elon Musk’s rule of Twitter. However, we can not say the same for old users. On November 3, Apptopia conducted a sample survey of consumers’ comments on the Twitter client in the software store and found that many users mentioned the name “Musk” in the comment text. One comment, for example, said “Thank you Musk for taking control of Twitter.” Another comment was “Twitter has gotten better since Musk took over.”
Recently, the Twitter client has not been upgraded with functions, but many users have given positive comments on the software store because of the new owner Musk. Apptopia’s data did not record the number of people that have left the platform. The company also does not monitor the daily number of uninstalls. However, relevant information shows that in June, the average number of daily active users of the app declined slightly. Nevertheless, there has been no decline since then.
Twitter’s first investors say the company’s problems are too big
Chris Sacca of venture capital is one of Twitter’s first investors. He claims that the company’s problems are too big. Sacca also believes that Elon Musk can not solve these issues alone. He needs someone around that needs to tell him some truth. In a tweet on Monday, Sacca said he has always admired Musk.
Sacca’s letter to fans mentioned that the challenges of running a popular social messaging service like Twitter require a level of nuance and human understanding that Musk has yet to demonstrate. Sacca also mentioned that he was “never a fan” of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta. However, in the U.S., Zuckerberg surrounds himself with “smart people” who occasionally offer advice. Unfortunately, for Musk, the “hard truth” is that “he’s alone right now, improvising.”
While Sacca is concerned about the future of the app, which he first invested in in 2006, he wants to see Musk make better decisions for the company’s sake. It is understood that Sacca is the founder of Lowercarbon Capital, which invests in alternative energy and sustainable technologies.