Linda Yaccarino already has the reins of Twitter. The directive chosen by Elon Musk to revive the business has been released in office this Monday, with the great challenge of attracting advertisers to a platform that has not raised its head in revenue since the tycoon of South African origin bought it.
"It has happened... first day in the books. Stay tuned," she posted on her profile on the social network hours after becoming executive director. At 59 years old and with a long career behind her, she is known as "the velvet hammer" for her tough negotiating tactics sweetened with friendly treatment.
The company, for which Musk paid 44,000 million dollars in October, just over 40,000 million euros, is worth a third today. Musk wants the former NBCUniversal and Turner Broadcasting System executive to improve relationships with brands to boost business, after losing deals following the controversial buyout and the reversal of the site's content rules. Advertising is crucial for Twitter: it represented 90% of the company's revenue before Musk landed.
The challenge is to stop a bleeding. The drop in metrics responds to the constant and controversial changes in the social network since the transfer of ownership, when an increase in hate speech began to be detected. This led to the departure of brands such as General Motors or Volkswagen.
Twitter recently lost two executives responsible for moderating violence, hate speech, pornography and other content advertisers don't want to associate their products with. According to The New York Times, revenue from advertisers in the US fell by 59% in April, to 88 million dollars, about 82.3 million euros. For his part, the owner of the social network said that the advertising business is on the rise, that almost "all advertisers have returned" and that the company could soon become profitable.
Musk said in May that Twitter was on track to record $3 billion -2.8 billion euros- in revenue in 2023, down from the $5.1 billion -4.8 billion euros- it earned in 2021, when the company continued to trading on Wall Street.
