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According to Elon Musk, Twitter was on the verge of bankruptcy but is financially stable, but the company is still facing financial troubles and has been unable to pay its bills after Musk bought the social network. At least seven lawsuits have been filed that claim to have been stopped.A new report says attempts to boost revenue for Twitter Blue subscriptions have not had much success, and plans to charge for API access are being pushed to users. and angers developers.
and tweet on sundayMusk said he had a ‘very tough’ three months as he had to ‘save Twitter from bankruptcy while fulfilling important obligations for Tesla and SpaceX… I don’t want pain. Public support is welcome! “
had a mask Said On November 4, 2022, Twitter was losing over $4 million per day. He cut Twitter’s expenses by laying off half its staff, laying off thousands of contractors, and issuing an ultimatum for many of its employees to resign. After the cost-cutting fuss, he was quoted as saying in his late December podcast that “the company is no longer on the highway to bankruptcy because expenses are being managed rationally.” .
One of Twitter’s problems is the $13 billion in debt that Musk used to finance the acquisition, resulting in a total of $1.5 billion in annual interest payments. In late January, Twitter “made its first interest payment of about $300 million to a group of seven banks led by Morgan Stanley,” Bloomberg wrote.
Musk’s apparent cost-cutting strategy of not paying rent or bills from vendors while Twitter has paid off debt is detailed in a growing number of lawsuits. Twitter said it owed $1.9 million for “proxy solicitation services” related to a special shareholders’ meeting that resulted in the approval of Musk’s $54.20 per share offer to take over Musk in New York state court. company.
Twitter Blue is not a huge success
Musk sought to increase revenue by expanding the functionality of its Twitter Blue subscription, increasing the price from $5 to $8 per month. But as of mid-January, Twitter had just 180,000 paying subscribers in the US, less than 0.2% of his monthly active users, The Information reported yesterday. Twitter had approximately 290,000 total subscribers worldwide.
The upgraded subscription first started in early November and then resumed on December 12th. The initial rollout was plagued by a wave of account impersonation taking advantage of Musk’s decision to make verification a paid feature.
It hasn’t been too long since the upgraded version has been available, so Twitter Blue’s revenue could still increase significantly. But for now, Musk said, “Even if his insane decisions as Twitter’s CEO caused a dramatic decline in ad sales, which account for a large portion of the company’s revenue, it’s a relatively poorly rewarding product.” A lot of attention has been given,” wrote The Information.
“In total, global subscribers represent approximately $28 million in annual revenue, less than 1% of Musk’s revenue target of $3 billion this year,” the report said. “About half of the revenue should go to subscriptions,” Musk told his Twitter employee in his November email.
While individuals aren’t flocking to Twitter Blue for $8 a month, Musk hopes companies are willing to pay more. will be required to pay “$1,000 per month to maintain the Gold Verified badge, plus $50 per month for each account associated with the company,” The Information report said.