I’ve been following the melodrama called Musk Buys Twitter ever since it started. I have no idea how his purchase will effect Twitter, but no matter what he says or tweets, I don’t believe it will do Twitter any good. I personally have a Twitter account, the third as a matter of fact, as I ended the first two because of how bad early Twitter was. Not to say that today’s Twitter is somehow any better. But I’ve been on Twitter this third time since 2011, or 11 years now. That’s a long time. I follow about three dozen people, and it looks like I have over 100 followers, but don’t ask my why that number is as high as it is. I very seldom go on it anymore, and when I do, it’s at my home via a web browser on one of my desktop systems. I removed all the Twitter apps (along with Facebook, Instagram, and other social media apps) years and years ago when it became obvious how much tracking they were doing without my permission. I’ve grown increasingly annoyed with Twitter’s new feature where I get a notification every time one of the accounts I follow makes a tweet. It used to be notifications were for direct messages or when someone liked or retweeted one of my very infrequent tweets. Now I get notifications every time someone I follow tweets. And I hate it. It’s ruined the experience. The only good thing I can say is my account is now private, meaning if you’re not one of my few followers now, you never will be.

And I don’t think I’m alone in not wanting to be on Twitter. Reuters has a news story where they report on internal Twitter research showing that its most valuable resource, the “heavy tweeters”, are ghosting the service:

Twitter is struggling to keep its most active users – who are vital to the business – engaged, underscoring a challenge faced by the Tesla (TSLA.O) chief executive as he approaches a deadline to close his $44 billion deal to buy the company.

These “heavy tweeters” account for less than 10% of monthly overall users but generate 90% of all tweets and half of global revenue. Heavy tweeters have been in “absolute decline” since the pandemic began, a Twitter researcher wrote in an internal document titled “Where did the Tweeters Go?”

A “heavy tweeter” is defined as someone who logs in to Twitter six or seven days a week and tweets about three to four times a week, the document said.

So yes, I’d say that Musk has got his work cut out for him. Not only are the valuable users leaving, but the ones who stick around are causing problems for companies that want to advertise on Twitter:

The research also found a shift in interests over the past two years among Twitter’s most active English-speaking users that could make the platform less attractive to advertisers.

Cryptocurrency and “not safe for work” (NSFW) content, which includes nudity and pornography, are the highest-growing topics of interest among English-speaking heavy users, the report found.

At the same time, interest in news, sports and entertainment is waning among those users. Tweets on those topics, which have helped Twitter burnish an image as the world’s “digital town square,” as Musk once called it, are also the most desirable for advertisers.

Twitter declined to specify how many of its tweets are in English or how much money it makes from English speakers. But the demographic is important to Twitter’s business, some analysts say.

The platform earned more ad revenue from the United States alone than all other markets combined in its fourth quarter, according to its investor letter, and most ads in the United States are likely targeting English-speaking users, said Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at Insider Intelligence.

Musk has tried to soften his rhetoric going into Friday’s purchase finalization, saying that he wasn’t going to lay off 75% of the current Twitter staff, but the damage to morale within Twitter, which was already pretty low, may hit rock bottom once Musk finalizes his purchase of Twitter.

I had thought I’d leave because of Musk, but I think I might hang around just to watch the place burn down.

Update

The deal completed this evening. Musk then fired the CEO, the CFO, and the Twitter legal chief. Why? Probably this via Ars Technica:

Musk publicly feuded with the Twitter CEO while he was trying to get out of the merger contract. In August, he challenged Agrawal to a public debate. Twitter stuck with its lawsuit against Musk instead, and the court case helped force Musk to complete the deal.

“And then revenge is very good eaten cold, as the vulgar say.”
Eugène Sue, “Memoirs of Matilda“

Reuters link: https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-where-did-tweeters-go-twitter-is-losing-its-most-active-users-internal-2022-10-25/
Ars Technica link: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/musk-visits-twitter-hq-promises-staff-he-wont-fire-75-of-them/
Ars Technica link: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/elon-musk-completes-twitter-purchase-immediately-fires-ceo-and-other-execs/