Elon Musk said Monday, May 8 that accounts that have been inactive for several years will be removed from Twitter, his latest announcement to date aimed at boosting the platform. "We're eliminating accounts that haven't been active at all in years, so you're likely going to see your follower count drop," the social network's boss warned in a tweet.
Since it bought the platform for $ 44 billion at the end of October, the multibillionaire has undertaken to disrupt its operation, with massive layoffs, various provocations and chaotic changes. Many advertisers have deserted the site and the app and the new paid subscription plan Twitter Blue (to be certified and enjoy privileges) seems very far from compensating for the loss of revenue, according to many analysts. But the boss of Tesla and SpaceX continues his momentum, encouraged by the feedback of his many fans. "We work hard to make your thread as interesting as possible (...) How is it today compared to six months ago?" he asked in a poll on Sunday. About 46% of the 1.5 million voters answered "better", and 38% "worst".
"Maximize time of use without regret"
Elon Musk has mentioned several times in recent months this sibylline objective: "Maximize the time of use (spent on the platform) without regret". When brands choose where to advertise, they take into account different measures, including the number of active users on a daily basis (or at least once a month), the average time spent on the platform or "engagement", i.e. the number of interactions with content (comments, "likes", etc.). The "time spent without regrets" "is not like the total number of users or whatever. That's just the total number of minutes of use without regrets," he said at a conference for advertising professionals in Miami, Florida, last month. Elon Musk has not indicated how to concretely measure this parameter, whose name suggests that his assessment is subjective.
According to research firm Insider Intelligence, Twitter's revenue will fall 28% this year because "advertisers don't trust Musk." In an interview with the BBC, Elon Musk assured on the contrary that the company saw advertisers return and was "about the break-even point".
