Twitter Works On Encrypted DMs, Longform Tweets, Payments, Says Musk
Twitter CEO Elon Musk says new user sign-ups for the social network are “at an all-time high”, as he battles the exodus of advertisers and users fleeing other platforms over concerns about verification and hate speech.
Subscribers were more than two million a day in the past seven days since November 16, up 66 percent compared to the same week in 2021, Musk said in a tweet late Saturday.
He also said that the active minutes of users were at a high level, estimated at almost 8 billion active minutes per day in the past seven days from November 15, which is an increase of 30 percent compared to the same week last year.
Hate speech has decreased since November 13 compared to October last year.
Reported simulations of the platform began earlier this month, before and after the launch of Twitter Blue, according to Musk.
Musk, who also owns rocket company SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunneling firm Boring Company, said buying Twitter would accelerate his desire to create “everything” called iX.
Musk’s “Twitter 2.0 The Everything App” will have features like encrypted direct messages (DMs), long-form tweets and payments, according to the tweet.
In another tweet early Sunday, Musk said he sees “a path to Twitter surpassing one billion monthly users in 12 to 18 months.”
Advertisers on Twitter, including major companies such as General Motors, Mondelez International, Volkswagen AG, have stopped advertising on the platform, as they vie for a new manager.
Musk said Twitter was facing a “significant drop in revenue” from advertisers, blaming a coalition of rights groups that has been pressing the platform’s top advertisers to take action if they don’t protect content moderation.
Activists are urging Twitter advertisers to release statements about removing their ads from the social media platform after Musk lifted a ban on former US president Donald Trump’s tweets.
Hundreds of Twitter employees are believed to have left the troubled company, following Musk’s announcement that workers must log “long hours at a high intensity,” or walk away.
The company in early November laid off part of its workforce, with teams responsible for communications, content management, human rights and machine learning ethics being cut, along with other product and engineering teams.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
