> Considering that Musk has yet to conclude his decision to takeover Twitter, it is highly unusual for him to be addressing the company's employees on such a scale as an outsider, and suggests that his takeover move may well be closer to reality soon.
Speaking to Twitter's 8,000-strong workforce via a smartphone video, Musk on Thursday laid out a bold vision for Twitter’s future, if he succeeds in taking the company private, in a freewheeling conversation that also touched on issues including content moderation, remote work and aliens.
Musk warned Twitter staffers its business needed to “get healthy” and undergo a “rationalisation of headcount and expenses” as he addressed the social media platform’s employees directly for the first time since launching his $44bn takeover bid.
The Tesla chief executive said he wanted Twitter to build up a user base of at least 1bn people globally, according to a person familiar with the situation. The company has 229mn monetisable daily active users - logged-in users to whom the platform shows advertising.
Doing so would mean ensuring people are not “harassed” on Twitter, he said, while also adding an array of features to emulate Chinese platform WeChat, a “superapp” where users can send messages, payments, shop or book taxis in one place.
In a nod to a second Chinese-owned app, he said that TikTok had successfully ensured its content was not “boring” - and that Twitter should follow in its footsteps.
Nevertheless Musk also hinted that lay-offs, cost-cutting or a restructuring might be in store, adding: “Right now costs exceed revenue. That’s not a great situation.”
His answers in the hour-long meeting, during which questions from employees were read out to him, suggest that he is still forging plans for how he will run the company.
Musk said that advertising would remain important to driving revenues but that he hoped to diversify into payments, subscriptions and paid-for user verification. In an early presentation shared with investors, he said he would seek to quintuple revenues to $24.6bn by 2028, according to a source familiar with the document.
Musk has taken one active step toward his acquisition and ownership of Twitter.
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