Twitter has lost almost half of its advertising revenue since it was acquired by Elon Musk for $44 billion (£33.6 billion) last October, its owner revealed.
He said the company didn’t see a revenue increase as expected in June, but added that July was “more promising”.
Musk laid off about half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees when he took over in 2022 in an effort to cut costs.
Rival app Threads now has 150 million users, by some estimates.
Its integrated connection to Instagram automatically provides access to the Meta-designed platform to two billion potential users.
Meanwhile, its competitor is struggling with a heavy debt load. Cash flow remains negative, Musk said over the weekend, though the billionaire did not give a timeframe for a 50% drop in ad revenue.
In a tweet, he said: “Need to achieve positive cash flow before we get any other luxury.”
After laying off thousands of staff and slashing its cloud service bill, Mr Musk said Twitter is on track to hit $3bn (£2.29bn) in revenue by 2023, down from $5. $1 billion (£3.89 billion) by 2021.
This development is the latest sign that aggressive cost-cutting measures have not been enough to stimulate the return of advertisers who fled following changes to content moderation rules. its.
That’s despite an interview the former CEO gave to the BBC in April in which he suggested that most had returned to the site.
Earlier this month, Twitter decided to limit the number of tweets that users can read. Unverified users can read 1,000 tweets and verified users 10,000 a day, a move the BBC says has baffled advertising executives.
It follows efforts to push users towards Twitter Blue, its paid subscription service.
Linda Yaccarino, formerly NBCUniversal’s head of advertising, was named CEO in June – a move that shows that ad sales remain a top priority for Twitter.
Yaccarino said Twitter plans to focus on video, creators and commercial partnerships. It is said to be in early talks with political and entertainment figures, payment services as well as news and media publishers.
