Twitter to See User Exodus Due to Elon Musk's Changes, Revenue to Be Flat for Two Years, Research Firm Says

Social media platform Twitter will see an exodus of users due to changes being made by new owner and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and flat revenue growth for the next two years, according to a report by Insider Intelligence on Tuesday.

Experts and users have had concerns about Twitter's ability to fight misinformation after it let go about half of its staff, including those involved in content moderation.

Twitter, which went private in October, will lose more users in the United States than in any of the countries Insider Intelligence tracks, the report said, adding that monthly users will fall to 50.5 million in 2024, the lowest level since 2014.

"Users will start to leave the platform next year as they grow frustrated with technical issues and the proliferation of hateful or other unsavoury content," said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.

The market research firm said Twitter's revenue growth will be flat for the next two years as revenue and staffing losses have made it more difficult for Musk to ship new products to increase usage and engagement on the platform.

Musk in November attributed a "massive drop in revenue" to civil rights groups that have pressured brands to pause their Twitter ads. The social media firm earns about 90 percent of its revenue from selling advertisements.

On Monday, the company disbanded its Trust and Safety Council, a volunteer group formed in 2016 to advise the social media platform on site decisions, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.

About half of the social media site's workforce — around 3,700 employees — have been laid off since Elon Musk took charge of the company and introduced a cost-cutting drive. More than a 1,000 have resigned, among them Yoel Roth, the company's former head of trust and safety.

"As Twitter moves into a new phase, we are reevaluating how best to bring external insights into our product and policy development work. As part of this process, we have decided that the Trust and Safety Council is not the best structure to do this," an email sent to the Trust and Safety Council members, seen by Reuters, said. A Twitter page for the group has been deleted.

The council comprised of various civil rights organisations, academics and other bodies that advocated for safety and advised Twitter as it developed products, programmes, and rules, according to a Web archive for the page.

© Thomson Reuters 2022